


xV 



</> ,\\ 



A"' 



^' ^ 



■ N^' 






^ 






7 ^ 









^ * .. 



,0' * ' : " / . Q 






** ^ 



"<& <f 



**' 



+o ' 



•o 



,0o 






'/ of* 



oH 'C 






.. 



^, 



«0* 













^o 






vV- </> 



c X 






'*, 






-/ V 









\ ' 



^ 



. 






\ v 



<H ^ 















• V 






/ ^ 





















'/ 






^ -%: 



• V 









-/ v- 



* ,** 



*« ^ 



^ 









<\ 



&' 












■A 






«v 



k 






.** 



o 



# .< 



V 



^ 






,0' 



'<? 



V> aV 






^ 















->. 



* ,v 



w 


\> V 


^ 




C, ^V 






aA <V 






</• V 






\ 



1 , % ,** N 















\ . 



v* ,* 



\ 









\^ 












.A 



-5-. 






</ 



CV * v x * * ^ 



U * V 



A 






1*. ' • 



\ 



oS ^ 



^ 



^ V* 



\ V 






.* 



o°v: 



9 » « "* \^ s - « , C ^ 

I ^ V 









A " 



JAVA, SUMATRA 

AND THE OTHER ISLANDS 
of the DUTCH EAST INDIES 



BROMO AND THE SEA OF SAND. 



JAVA, SUMATRA 

AND THE OTHER ISLANDS OF 
THE DUTCH EAST INDIES 

By A. CABATON 



TRANSLATED AND WITH A 
PREFACE BY BERNARD MIALL 



With a Map and 47 Illustrations 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

597-599 FIFTH AVENUE 






\* 




■*Ssay 



[All rights reserved] 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

Historical Sketch . . . . i 

I. The lost continent of the Pacific. — The significance of coral. 
— The old theory of the Asiatic irruption. — The new theory of 
the Polynesian migration. — Both anthropology and philology 
unreliable. — Probable origin of the Malays. — Traces of their 
passage in India. — Two languages. — The Hindu or Buddhist 
invasion. — Adjih Saka. — The nomadic legend. — Its probable 
interpretation. — Buddhist missions. — Immigration in bulk. — 
Javanese chronicles. — Lack of political cohesion. — Was the 
Javanese civilisation a high one ? — Monuments. — The Hindu 
dynasties. — The Arab missionaries. — Demak. — The Arab 
warrior priests, and the fall of the Hindu Empire. — II. 
Arrival of the Europeans. — The Portuguese, Dutch, French, 
and English. — III. Sir Stamford Raffles and English rule. — 
Recent developments.— Education and future prospects. 



CHAPTER II 

Generalities . . . . . .25 

I. The importance, area, and population of the Dutch East 
Indies. — II. Administrative divisions of the Dutch East Indies, 
and the best method of studying them. — III. European, and, in 
particular, Dutch intervention, in the East Indies. — IV. Physical 
characteristics of the Archipelago. — V. The races which inhabit 
it. — VI. The principal languages spoken ; and which must 
be learned by the European settling in the Indies. 



CHAPTER III 

Java and Madura : Physical Geography . . 45 

I. Their shape. — II. Their geological constitution and oro- 
graphical aspect, — III. Streams and rivers of Java and Madura ; 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 



PAGE 



their qualities as alluvial agents, and their insufficiency as water- 
ways ; their influence upon the coast-line and the harbours. — 
IV. The climate : its stability. — V. The Javanese flora. — VI. 
The Javanese fauna. 



CHAPTER IV 

Administrative Divisions of Java . . • 57 

I. — The seventeen Residencies. — The western Residencies : 
Bantam, Batavia, Cheribon, the Preangers. — II. The central 
Residencies : Pekalongan, Samarang, Banjumas, Kedu. — III. 
Kedu and Boro-Budur. — IV. The Vorstenlanden or Princi- 
palities, Surakarta and Djokjakarta. — V. Rembang, Madiun. 
— VI. The Residencies of the East : Surabaja, Kediri, Pasuruan, 
Besuki, and Madura. 



CHAPTER V 

The Natives of Java . 101 

I. Distribution of the native element in Java : the Sundanese 
and Madurese compared with the Javanese. — II. The Javanese. 
— III. The Javanese house and village. — IV. The family and 
marriage. — V. Daily occupations : agricultural labour, hunting, 
and fishing. — VI. The batik industry : Javanese clothing. — 

VII. The love of pleasure, and the means of satisfying it : betel- 
nut, tobacco, opium, and hemp ; cock-fighting and gambling. — 

VIII. Failings with which Europeans reproach the Javanese, 
nearly all of which have some historic excuse. 



CHAPTER VI 

The Javanese Mind . 136 

I. The religious question in Java is involved in the historic 
evolution of the masses. — The religion of Java is a sincere 
Islamism, modified by the survivals of earlier cults ; tolerant 
and kindly, like the character of the nation. — II. How the 
Dutch Indies escaped Christianity. — III. The problem of 
education in Java ; its various phases since the Dutch occu- 
pation. — IV. The awakening of the Javanese people and their 
leaders ; their claims. 



CONTENTS ix 

CHAPTER VII 

PAGE 

The Oriental Foreign Element . . 154 

I. The Oriental foreign element in Java and Madura : the 
Japanese, Arabs, and Chinese. — The Japanese are the latest 
arrivals, and the least numerous, but also the best treated. — II. 
The Arabs : the religious and economic danger represented by 
the Arab element in the Dutch Indies. — III. The Chinese : their 
numbers, their activity, their wealth. — Why they are considered 
detrimental to the political and economic power of the rulers, 
and the morality and prosperity of the native. — IV. The various 
solutions of the problem. — Their injustice, or insufficiency, or 
the impossibility of applying them. — The only remedy is to 
educate the Javanese so that they may take their place as 
loyal collaborators and agents of the administration and the 
European industries. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Europeans in Java ..... 167 

I. The three aspects of the European element in the Dutch 
Indies : army, colonisation, bureaucracy.-— The army .—I I. The 
colonists : foreigners, and why so few settle in Java. — The 
French colony.— III. The Dutch colony.— Its relation with the 
State and the natives : despite the vast area of the plantations, 
there are few private freeholds ; the planter is the tenant of the 
State or of the natives ; sometimes of both together. — IV. His 
life ; his house, furniture, and costume ; his food, servants, and 
amusements. — V. The instability of European families in Java ; 
why they do not settle there without thought of return.— -VI. 
The half-breeds. 



CHAPTER IX 

The Administration in Java . # . .189 

I. The important position of the European officials in Java. — 
Their restricted numbers are due to the form of government 
which obtains in the Dutch East Indies : the Dutch govern the 
natives through their own chiefs.— II. Relations between the 
native and European administrations. —III. The hierarchy, 
privileges, and importance of the European officials.— IV. 
Complaints against the officials made by colonists and natives. 



x CONTENTS 

CHAPTER X 

PAGE 

The Products of Java ..... 204 

I. The various phases of the economic history of Java under 
Dutch rule.— -II. The Van den Bosch or "forced cultivation " 
system.— III. The help given by the State to free labour. The 
Botanical Institute at Buitenzorg. — IV. Native property in land. 
V. Native crops : rice, coco-palms, areca- and betel-nuts,— VI. 
Bamboo ; bamboo huts. 



CHAPTER XI 

Agriculture : Various Crops .... 219 

I. Coffee. — II. Sugar-cane. — III. Tobacco. — IV. Tea. — V. 
Quinine. — VI. Indigo. — VII. Lesser crops : pepper, cinnamon, 
cotton, &c. 



CHAPTER XII 

Forests and Mines. Industry. Commerce . . 240 

I. The forests of djati and of "natural woods." — II. The mines 
of Java ; the mining system ; petroleum. — III. Salt. — IV. 
Industries : their character ; the industrial future of Java. — V. 
Institutions of credit and thrift. — VI. Internal trade and the 
means of transport and communication : roads, railways, 
rivers ; steamer services between the various islands of the 
Archipelago. — The merchant marine of the Archipelago. — VII. 
Post and telegraphs. — VIII. Weights and measures. — The 
monetary system. — IX. The export trade ; customs ; transport. 



CHAPTER XIII 

The Outer Possessions (Buitenbezittingen). Sumatra 
and the Archipelago of Riouw Lingga . . 257 

L The various divisions of the "Outer Possessions," and the 
importance of Sumatra. — II. The dimensions, physical aspect, 
and coast-line of Sumatra.— III. The rivers and the sea-coast of 
Sumatra. — IV. The climate, flora, and fauna. — V. The native 
races : their origin, beliefs, and manners. — VI. The principal 
languages ; the most useful language for the visitor to or 
inhabitant of Sumatra. 



CONTENTS xi 

CHAPTER XIV 

PAGE 

The Political and Economic Condition of Sumatra 
and the Archipelago of Riouw Lingga . . 283 

I. The Dutch have been hampered by certain European Powers 
and certain of the races of Sumatra in their endeavour to 
establish the power of Holland in Sumatra. — II. The present 
administrative divisions of Sumatra. — The principal towns and 
their future. — III. Economic value of Sumatra : the wealth of 
its natural resources. — IV. How far the natives have exploited 
the natural resources. — V. How far the Europeans have done 
so : the mines. — VI. Coffee and tobacco ; spices. — VII. The 
means of communication with Sumatra : railways, packet- 
boats. — The means of communication must be greatly enlarged 
before the island can be pacified and its wealth developed. 



CHAPTER XV 

Borneo ....... 307 

I. Dimensions of Borneo : how divided among the Powers. — 

II. Orography and hydrography. — III. Climate, flora, and 
fauna. — IV. The inhabitants : their manners and their civili- 
sation. — V. The establishment of Dutch supremacy in Borneo. 
— VI. Administrative divisions and principal towns. — VII. The 
economic situation ; what it may one day become. 

CHAPTER XVI 

Celebes and its Dependencies . 323 

I. The situation and aspect of Celebes.— II. The physical 
geography of the island ; its climate, fauna, and flora.— III. The 
inhabitants : Bugis, Macassars, Alfours, Toradjas. — IV. The 
establishment of the Dutch in Celebes. — V. Administrative 
divisions : i. Residency of Celebes and dependencies ; 2. 
Residency of Menado, — VI. The economic outlook and the 
future of Celebes. 

CHAPTER XVII 

The Moluccas and New Guinea . • . 339 

I. Physical geography of the Moluccas.— II. Their inhabitants.— 

III. The Dutch in the Moluccas.— IV. Administrative divisions ; 
(a) the Residency of Ternate and dependencies ; (b) The 
Residency of Amboin.— V. The Residency of the West of 
New Guinea.— VI. The economic future of the Moluccas, 



xii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XVIII 

PAGE 

Timor and its Dependencies — Bali and Lombok . 353 

I. The physical aspect of Timor and the character of its 
inhabitants. — II. The dependencies of Timor t Flores, Solor, 
Alor, Sawu, Sumba. — III. Administrative divisions of Timor 
and its dependencies. — IV. Bali : the island and its people. — V. 
Lombok : the island and its people. — VI. The establishment of 
the Dutch power in Bali and Lombok ; the administrative 
divisions, and the future of the Residency, 

Conclusion ...... 368 

Index ....... 372 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Bromo and the Sea of Sand . , 

A Wayside Fountain, Java 

Avenue of Banyans, Buitenzorg 

Temple of Boro Budur 

Tiger-baiting, Java 

The Kali Mas, Surabaja 

Grimm's Restaurant, Surabaja 

The Old Simpang Club, Surabaja 

Native Boats, Willemskerke, Surabaja 

Chinese Kampong, Surabaja 

Arab Mosque, Surabaja 

Chinese Temple, Surabaja 

A Tenggri Village, Tosari 

The Hill Station, Tosari 

The Sanatorium, Tosari 

A Javanese Bridegroom 

A Javanese Bride 

A Gamelan, or Native Orchestra 

A " Wayang " : Javanese Players 

A Batik Factory 

An Arab Trader, Surabaja 

An Arab Trader's Wife 

a sundanese peddler selling " batavia goods " 

A Chinese Merchant and Family . 



Frontispiece 

PAGE 

20 

38 
48 

56 
64 

68 
68 
72 
72 
78 
78 
82 

94 

94 

no 

no 
127 
132 
132 
156 
1S8 
158 

l62 



XIV 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Chinese New Year's Festival , 

Native Policemen . . • 

Chinese Kampong, Batavia 

Back of the Chinese Kampong, Batavia 

Sugar-cane, Java 

Rice and Coffee Lands, Java 

Coffee Plantation, Java 

Making a Garden in the Virgin Forest, J. 

Native Irrigation Wheels 

Native Engineering : A Bamboo Cantilever 

A Javanese Tea Plantation . 

Malays of Menangkabau, Kota Gedang 

Dwelling-house and Rice Granary, Batipu 

Achinese Boys .... 

Native Loom, Acheen . 

A Malay Dwelling-house, Kota Gedang, 

A Kanari Kampong, Solok, Sumatra . 

Government Official's House, Borneo 

A Rope Ferry, Borneo 

Dyaks at Kutjung, Sarawak . 

Sumatrese Girls at Work 

Market at Celebes 

"Wayang" Actors, Singaradja, Bali 





PAGE 


. • • 


166 


. * • 


166 


• • . 


170 


• . • 


170 


« • • 


174 


. • • 


174 


• . • 


180 


Java . 


180 


« 


220 


er Bridge 


22c 


« 


232 


. 


268 


?u, Sumatra 


270 


. 


276 


. 


276 


Sumatra 


. 288 


. 


296 


• • 


. 308 


• « 


. 308 


• 


• 3H 


• 


• 324 


• 


• 324 


• • 


. 3 6 <> 



NOTE 



The official Dutch orthography, with one or two slight 
modifications, has been preserved throughout the book. 
The Dutch oe has been represented by u ; the exact sound 
inclines to that of the German ii ; dj and tj should be pro- 
nounced dchy, tchy, but with a very slight insistence on the 
y ; nj is like the Spanish n, or the ni in onion ; g is always 
hard. In the atlases those names commencing with tj 
which are most familiar to the traveller are spelt commen- 
cing with ch; but for the sake of uniformity the translator 
has, hardly without exception, kept to the correct spelling, 
only substituting u for the Dutch oe. 

In addition to the works cited in the footnotes, the author's 

principal sources of reference have been : the Encyclopcedie 

van N ederlansch-Indie . . . Samengesteld door P. A. Van der 

Lith, A. J. Spaan, F. Fokkens, J. F. Snelleman (Leyden, 

1896-1905,4 vols., large 8vo) ; a vast compilation of everything 

relating to the Dutch Indies, of which the Dutch are justly 

proud ; the masterly work by P. T. Veth, Java, geographisch, 

ethnologischy historisch, 2nd edition, by J. F. Snelleman and 

J. F. Niermeyer (Leyden, 1896-1907, 4 vols., 8vo) ; the 

sincere and picturesque study by the deputy H. van Kol, Uit 

onze kolonien. Uitvoerig reisverhaal (Leyden, 1903, large 8vo), 

and a lucid, methodical work by the same author on Dutch 

and European colonial systems, the Regeerings Almanak voor 

Nederlandsch-Indie igog (Batavia, Landsdrukkerij, 2 vols. 8vo), 

and the Kolonial verslag van igo8. Zitting igo8-g (The 

Hague) gedrukt ver Algemeene Landsdrukkerij, igog, folio. 

In the maps, AjSr, Batang, Kali, Kroeeng, Soengai, Sungai 

=- river. Teloek, Dano = lake. Noesa, Poeloe (Nusa, Pulu) 

*= island. Oedjoeng, udjung = point. Tandjong = cape. 



xvi NOTE 

Boer, Bur, Boekit, Bukit, Dolok, Goenoeng, Gunung, Tor, 
Glei = mountain. 

The best atlas of the Dutch Indies is that by J. W. 
Steemfoort and J. J. Ten Siethoff : Atlas der N ederlandsche 
bezittingen in Oost-Indie (The Hague, Smulders) ; but the 
Atlas van Nederlandsch Oost-Indie, by W. Van Gelder 
(Groningen, Wolters), a convenient and classical publication, 
issued at a moderate price, will answer all practical purposes. 

The translator has to thank Mrs. George Watson for the 
use of a number of photographs ; and the publisher's thanks 
are due to M. Cabaton for the use of a series of photographs 
issued by the Dutch Colonial Institute. 



JAVA 



CHAPTER I 

HISTORICAL SKETCH 

By the Translator 

The lost continent of the Pacific. — The significance of coral. — 
The old theory of the Asiatic irruption. — The new theory of 
the Polynesian migration. — Both anthropology and philology 
unreliable. — Probable origin of the Malays. — Traces of their pas- 
sage in India. — Two languages. — The Hindu or Buddhist inva- 
sion. — Adjih Saka. — The nomadic legend. — Its probable inter- 
pretation. — Buddhist missions. — Immigration in bulk. — Javanese 
chronicles. — Lack of political cohesion. — Was the Javanese 
civilisation a high one ? — Monuments. — The Hindu dynasties. 
— The Arab missionaries. — Demak. — The Arab warrior priests, 
and the fall of the Hindu Empire. — II. Arrival of the Euro- 
peans, — The Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English. — 
III. Sir Stamford Raffles and English rule. — Recent develop- 
ments, — Education and future prospects, 



I. 

A glance at the map of the Pacific will show us that 
the innumerable small islands lying between the Malay 
Archipelago, Australia, and America, fall roughly into five 
or six groups : in other words, they are the peaks of as 
many vast ranges of submarine mountains. Each of these 
groups represents such an archipelago of small moun- 
tainous islets as would take the place, let us say, of Java 
and Sumatra, were a stupendous volcanic catastrophe 
or a gradual subsidence to sink them some thousands of 

2 1 



2 JAVA 

feet below the surface of the sea. It is therefore reason- 
able to suppose that they represent a sunken continent, 
which was traversed by many mountain ranges ; or if 
not a continent, several islands of gigantic area. 

That the islands of the Pacific were not thrown up as 
they now stand, and are not now rising, is proved by the 
existence, round nearly all of them, of coral reefs ; while 
in many cases the peak has disappeared altogether, leaving 
only an atoll, or a vast circular reef of coral. Moreover, 
there are long lines of such reefs enclosing large areas of 
shallow sea. The coral polyp cannot live below a 
very moderate depth of water, and builds with extreme 
slowness : conclusively proving these islands to be the 
summits of large bodies of land, which have been 
slowly sinking during a period of incalculable duration. 

A few years ago the theory was generally accepted that 
the whole of Polynesia, the Malay Archipelago, and 
Madagascar, were populated by a Mongolian irruption 
from Asia, which passed from the Peninsula to Java before 
the Straits existed, and, finally becoming a maritime nation, 
spread east and west over the entire Pacific and Indian 
Oceans. This theory was accepted in spite of the very 
obvious differences between the best type of Maori and 
the ordinary Malay ; between the coast and the inland 
Malay ; between the black Polynesian and the fair- 
skinned Polynesian ; and the distinct cleavage of 
languages. The presence of negroid or Negrito peoples 
was explained by an immigration from India, and 
perhaps from Africa also. 

Lately the opposite theory has been favoured : that 
the sunken Pacific continent was the home of a Pacific 
race, perhaps of considerable civilisation, which emi- 
grated northward and westward as the continent sank, 
while also retiring to the mountains, which finally 
became islands. It is also suggested that various races 
of South-Eastern Asia which show affinity with the 
Malays had the same origin. 1 

1 Anthropologists are apt to lose sight of the fact that all problems 
of ethnology cannot be settled by measurements of the skull. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 3 

Were either the Polynesian or the Mongolian theory 
true, we should expect to find a homogeneous race and 
language from New Zealand to Madagascar. Setting 
aside such minor problems as certain fair-haired races 
who may represent remnants of some Celtic movement, 
or of the migration of Arabs with a Gothic strain, and 
black races who may be aborigines of Australia, Africa, 
or Hindustan, the unprejudiced observer is inclined to 
see two principal races : a true Polynesian race, of 
which the finest and most highly specialised type is the 
Maori, and a true Malay or Mongolian race. The 
Polynesian languages have little in common with 
Sanscrit : the Malay tongue has much in common with 
it. There are Malays speaking the Malay tongue upon 
the Malay Peninsula, the natural highway from Asia. 
The true Polynesian is peculiar to the Pacific ; and 
the Polynesian language has as many dialects as the 
Polynesian skin has shades of brown. Moreover, the 
Malays, although bold navigators, have not pervaded 
the whole of Polynesia, and their vessels, houses, and 

Round-headedness and long-headedness, wherever two races mingle, 
are presumably Mendelian characteristics, one of which is domi- 
nant, so that in the process of natural selection we may reasonably 
expect to see one type of skull predominate, or pass from one race 
to another, which would preserve, in an unmixed state, the opposite 
type of skull. 

Philologists, again, do not always remember that while a con- 
quering and civilising race may either stamp out or adopt the 
tongue of its inferiors, or produce a hybrid language as the result, 
it is also true that when a highly organised and simplified language 
with a rich practical vocabulary comes into even casual contact 
with a lower, and in some senses a more complex tongue, devoid of 
generalisations and of qualifying terms, there is likely to be an 
absorption of the more highly organised tongue which need not be 
accompanied by any racial admixture, or more than a slight racial 
contact. The reader must remember that theories are changing 
every year, and that the specialist in one science contradicts the 
specialist in another. The present writer, in attempting to give 
some account of the peoples of Indonesia, can but endeavour to 
keep the middle line and to avoid improbable extremes, while 
adducing certain facts in support of the theory of dual origin. 



4 JAVA 

art in general show more Chinese and Arabian than 
Polynesian influence. This suggests a recent arrival ; 
while the varieties of the Polynesian suggest long 
specialised evolution. 

There is no race in Asia resembling the Polynesian 
of the south : whereas there are races in South-Eastern 
Asia having affinities with the mixed Indonesians and 
Malays. 

The inhabitants of Java were called Rasaksa by the 
first Hindu invaders. In many parts of India, on the 
borders of the forests, the natives to this day believe in 
and fear a demon known as the Raksha. 1 They describe 
it as having eyes set obliquely in the head ; it is ugly, 
broad, bulky, mis-shapen, and has terrible teeth. It 
haunts only the forest and the tops of hills, and is given 
to decoying children or solitary women. It also has a 
terrible cry : an important point, of which more anon. 

A race of Mongols or Huns was for a long period kept 
out of China only by the Great Wall. This would seem 
to show that they for some reason desired to migrate, 
to extend their nomadic empire ; probably because the 
plains of Asia were overpopulated, for a nomadic people 
requires a large country for its support. 

Now the Malays themselves had a legend that they 
came from the East, crossing to Java and Sumatra when 
the Straits were solid land. Any great migration across 
India or the slopes of the Himalayas would have 
driven the then inhabitants of the concealing forests 

1 See, for particulars of this very significant superstition as found 
among the eastern hills of India, "Old Deccan Days, or Hindoo 
Fairy Legends/' collected by Mary Frere. Her mention of this 
superstition as existing in Scinde (where the demon is known not as a 
Raksha, but as a Djinn) seems to lend support to the legend as related 
by Raffles, to the effect that the invading nomads came from the 
neighbourhood of the Red Sea (Persian Gulf ?). Their route would 
then lead them through Baluchistan to Scinde, whence they would 
presumably have crossed India by keeping to the hills and forests. 
Even did they come from Central Asia (as seems most probable) 
they may well have entered India vie Persia, Baluchistan, and 
ScindQ, 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 5 

to seek safety in flight. But now let us consider the 
tail-end of such a migration, when the normal population 
would have returned to their homes. Dangerous, furtive 
savages would continue, perhaps for years, to slink 
through the Himalayan passes, cross India by means 
of the hills and forests, and so make their way south- 
ward. They might well, being a people of the plains, 
employ a mustering call or shriek in the forests, or 
employ a ritual marching-cry. They would not en- 
courage stray children or women. They disappeared 
untold centuries ago ; they are not met with, now, as 
human passengers through the woods. What could 
the Hindu make of them, when once they had passed, 
but slant-eyed demons who shrieked in the woods ? 

Again, the nomads of Central Asia were horsemen. 
This we know from the writings of classic and early 
mediaeval writers. But they could not ride their horses 
through the Himalayas or the forests. The hordes 
which invaded Europe — Tartars, Huns, and Vandals — 
were chiefly or entirely a pastoral people. Only their 
custom of driving with them the herds of cattle upon 
which they lived could give them the mobility which 
rendered raiding possible. That there were agricultural 
nomads in Central Asia, who sowed and reaped and 
migrated yearly, we know from the Vedic writings : the 
Aryans who settled India were such. 

Bearing all these facts in mind, let us now go forward 
to the commencement of the historical era in the Malay 
Archipelago. 

According to Raffles, the tradition concerning the race 
whom the first Hindus found established in Java was as 
follows : they were nomadic, travelling in hordes, but 
they lived by agriculture and migrated afoot. Only the 
elder of the tribe, who was its chief and high-priest, was 
carried with his family in a litter or borne upon an 
elephant. The year's crop being gathered, the fresh 
migration was directed by an omen — the flight of a bird. 
Apparently the sun and moon were worshipped ; but a 
certain amount of general animism appears to have pre- 



6 JAVA 

vailed. At times of augury or sacrifice, or to express 
homage to the chief while travelling, or to frighten away 
wild beasts, the young men set up loud shouts and 
screams ; " as do the Dayas of Borneo to this day on like 
occasions." I These people were known as Rasaksa. 

These Rasaksa, or Malays, have remained almost 
unmixed in Sumatra, except upon the coast, where there 
has been a considerable interfusion of Chinese and also 
of Arab blood. The civilisation of the Sumatrese is 
largely Arab with traces of Chinese influence ; their 
religion was brought by the Arabs. In Java there has 
been a very considerable interfusion of Hindu blood, 
which is betrayed by the darker tint of the Javanese 
natives and by their finer features. Animists, or sun- 
worshippers, in prehistoric times, they were rapidly con- 
verted to Buddhism, which in time merged into the 
Shivaite cult ; and until the Mahomedan conquest of 
Madjapahit their civilisation was of the Hindu feudal 
type. 

Of the outlying islands some are still Hindu ; others 
are largely animistic. The religion of the Polynesians 
may be roughly described as a mixture of fetishism, idol- 
worship, animism, taboo, and in some cases, apparently, 
ritualistic or sacramental cannibalism. 

We must remember that this early legend may have 
been "telescoped" by the Hindu or Javanese historians, 
who may have inserted echoes of the Vedic hymns. 
But regarding it as authentic, and bearing in mind all 
the preceding facts, and in especial the partly Asiatic 
character of the Malay ships and houses and the limits 
of Malay colonisation, is not the conclusion almost 
irresistible that a tribe of Mongolian nomads, driven 
from Central Asia by fiercer or more mobile enemies, 
or by some unknown catastrophe, such as a disease, a 

1 Raffles states that the princes of the eastern part of Java used to 
favour a dance performed by men with tangled hair, clad in leaves, 
who shouted and leaped and shook the angklung, a rude instrument 
which is mentioned in the early legend : these dancers represented 
the supposed aborigines. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 7 

blight, a cattle pest, or by a prophecy or a superstition, 
found their way across or around the Himalayas, through 
the forests and the uplands of India, down the Burmese 
border, finally reaching the Malay Archipelago, and 
perhaps the regions to the east thereof ? Whether they 
remained there, as appears probable, until they learned 
navigation from the settled inhabitants of the country, 1 
or whether they were able to march into Java by land, 
is not a matter of great importance ; but the fact that 
the Peninsula contains a large Malay population inferior 
in civilisation to the Malays of the Indies seems to favour 
the theory of a temporary halt. Then, it seems, they 
spread through the Archipelago, sometimes exterminating 
but more often absorbing the aborigines, or driving them 
to the mountains ; finally colonising the borders of 
Polynesia and superimposing themselves upon that 
ancient oceanic race, whose peculiar conditions had 
perhaps caused a relapse from a higher and more ancient 
continental civilisation, while they had prevented any 
physical degeneration. We may regard the true coast 
Malay as the Asiatic nomad with Chinese and Arabian 
blood in his veins, and the various peoples of mixed 
Malay blood who are known as Indonesians as a hybrid 
between the Mongolian and Polynesian elements, though 
here and there the Malays or Indonesians may have 
mingled with the black races of African or Indian origin. 

Proceeding now from tradition to the chronicles, we 
find ourselves in a maze of contradictions, inconsisten- 
cies, miraculous anecdotes, and legends, compiled in all 
probability (since the adventurers who settled Java are 
not likely to have brought court records with them) from 
the boastful oral traditions and narratives of warriors, 
priests, and female elders of the palace. From these 
chronicles it is not possible to judge which princes may 
be supposed to have reigned in Java and which were 
actually Indian rulers. 

It is apparently agreed, however, that the first Hindu 

1 These may have been Chinese or black aborigines from India ; 
probably both were present, the Chinese as maritime settlers. 



8 JAVA 

to send or to bring an expedition to Java was Adi Saka, 
or Adjih Saka. His advent, or expedition, is by some 
attributed to the year 75 a.d. While he may have been 
merely a nameless ruler (Adi) or a prince who afterwards 
took his name from Atjeh (Achin), it is not altogether 
improbable that we have here a mention of the great 
Buddhist ruler Asoka, King of Behar, who in 244 B.C. 
commenced that wonderful Buddhist propaganda which 
established Buddhism in India and gave it a settled 
hierarchy. His policy, which resembled that of the 
Jesuits in that road-making and preaching, well-sinking 
and education went hand in hand, resulted in a vast 
missionary organisation which is known to have spread 
as far as Ceylon. His son carried on his work. The 
great Buddhist ruler of the first century of our era was 
Kunishka, whose name cannot by any corruption have 
come to resemble Adi Saka. 1 

When we remember that Saka means the founder of 
an era, therefore a prince, and also Buddha himself, it is 
evident that the first chapter of Javanese history does not 
carry us very far. 

Some chroniclers attribute the introduction of Budd- 
hism, or rather of Brahminism, to one Tritestra, a priest ; 
others regard him as identical with Adi Saka. His 
descendants are supposed to have ruled Java. 

It seems certain that further Buddhist invasions took 
place in the fifth and seventh centuries. There are men- 
tions of rulers coming from abroad and of expeditions 
of as many as twenty thousand priests, warriors, and 
craftsmen. For centuries, we may suppose, Java was 
regarded as an Eldorado where any refractory vassal or 
adventurous refugee or superfluous prince might win a 
kingdom ; standing in relation to India as Brazil did to 
Portugal. 

Powerful states must have arisen early in the history 
of Java, as is attested by the remains of gigantic temples, 

1 The constant mention of Asoka as the great patron of Buddhism 
may have led remote chroniclers to believe that he was alive 
centuries after his death. Adi Saka is perhaps Adi Asoka 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 9 

primitive in respect of construction, but superb in decora- 
tion and finish. Whether these wonderful monuments 
are proof of a very cultured state of society is doubtful. 
There was more movement in Asia a thousand years ago 
than now ; craftsmen of all countries may have been 
attracted to the new, fertile, wealthy land, which was full 
of royal courts and powerful feudal chiefs. Of the con- 
dition of their employers we know little. Hindu art, 
however, touched its zenith in Java, though, as we have 
seen, the architecture was primitive in plan, having 
usually an earthen core. 

It is difficult to judge how soon Java became, even 
nominally, a single kingdom. We are told, however, 
that in the year 1157 the kingdom of the second Aji 
Saka was divided into four kingdoms, which then 
became incorporated into the empire of Pajajaran, which 
was afterwards known as the empire of Madjapahit. 
This lasted from 1376 or 1396 to 1476, when it fell before 
the assault of the Mahomedans. The empire being a 
feudal State, there still remained Hindu kingdoms, most 
of which were rapidly broken up or converted. The 
first Mahomedan State of Demak became the empire of 
Mataram. Gradually the States were absorbed by the 
Dutch, with the exception of the empire, which was 
divided into the two Principalities which are still extant. 
But the feudal framework of society has remained and 
is to-day employed as the means of government and 
administration. 

The fall of Madjapahit is a long and intricate romance 
— too long for insertion here. It was attacked by the 
recently formed Mahomedan States of the seaboard, 
which were largely the result of Arab missionary effort. 
Java was converted to Islam almost as readily as to 
Buddhism, the truth being that the Javanese is at heart 
an animist. He utters the invocation " There is no God 
but God and Mahomed is His prophet/' but he does so 
facing a stone altar which stands beneath a tree : the 
primitive village altar of India. To-day, despite Islam, 
that stone is the abode of the patron spirit of the village. 



10 JAVA 

Every field, every garden, every hill and valley has its 
emanation, its spirit, capable of good or evil, to be 
offended or propitiated ; every disease its demon. Some 
of the greater spirits, who are dignified by names, hold 
almost the position of demigods, such as Rata Loro 
Kedul, the princess of the Indian Ocean. Not only the 
genius loci is to be feared, but every seeming inanimate 
object has its indwelling spirit. The better-class Malays 
and the Javanese nobles are often reasonably orthodox ; 
but the teaching of Islam has never disturbed the funda- 
mental beliefs of the people. As in parts of Italy, the old 
pagan beliefs remain ; but Islam has not absorbed the 
indigenous gods as the Catholic Church has done. It 
was probably a revulsion against feudal tyranny, a 
weariness of the caste system, the jealousy of a superior 
race, and a human desire for loot that led to the sudden 
conversion of the Javanese and the extensive substitution 
of the Malay civilisation, partly Arab, partly Chinese, 
partly native or Indonesian, for the rigid rule of the 
Brahministic hierarchy. Led by the genuinely fanatical 
Arabs and the jealous Malays of the coast, the converts 
formed a force which the less primitive Hindus were 
unable to oppose. 

An effort to convert the princes of Sunda to Islam was 
made by the Arab traders and priests about 1250 a.d. It 
was unsuccessful. Before this date a brother of a prince 
of Pajajaram returned from India as a convert, accom- 
panied by an Arab, and attempted to proselytise his 
brother. A few years later an attempt was made to 
convert the Rajah of Madjapahit, the Rajah of Cherman 
putting forward his daughter as an inducement. The 
death of the princess and her suite by an epidemic 
disease set a term to this propaganda ; but the progress 
of Islam in India and among the Malays of the coast, 
who were in constant contact with Arab traders and 
residents, was rapidly increasing. 

History states that the Rajah of Madjapahit was de- 
feated by his own son ; his son by a Chinese wife, whom 
he gave to a vassal to please a later wife. Vassal and 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 11 

son were converted to Islam, and in the course of years 
the son was given a fief, which he erected into the State 
of Demak, by his father, against whom he finally headed 
a powerful federation of Mahomedan leaders, his 
grievance being the treatment which his mother had 
received. He was opposed by his half-brother, the 
emperor's commander, but eventually captured the city. 
During his adolescence the empire absorbed nearly all 
the islands now known as the Outer Possessions. 

The destruction of the great city was followed by the 
dispersal of all the craftsmen of Madjapahit, including 
the famous workers in steel. Many of them settled 
throughout the islands ; one result being the general 
adoption of the krees. Many bodies of Hindu wor- 
shippers fled, refusing to change their religion, which is 
still extant in certain parts of Java and the isles. 



II. 

Spices came from the unknown, gorgeous East : un- 
trodden, since the downfall of the Bactrian States, by 
any Europeans but the Polos. Gold also and precious 
jewels, silks, carpets, ivories and embroideries, and 
many another precious merchandise beckoned the 
adventurers Eastward. Partly to obtain such goods at 
first hand, so saving the enormous cost of transport by 
sea, caravan, and once more by water, of the dues of 
many ports, and the profits of many middlemen, and 
partly to make territorial conquest and to spread the 
Christian faith, the Portuguese, at the end of the fifteenth 
century, when the power of feudalism was broken and 
Portugal was full of landless, masterless, or ambitious 
men, began to search for the kingdom of Cathay. 

Columbus, bearing a letter to the Khan of Tartary, 
had sailed in 1492 under the Spanish flag in search of 
Asia westward ; discovering the West Indies. Five 
years later Vasco de Gama set out from Lisbon, rounded 
the Cape of Good Hope, and reached the city of Calicut 
in India. The "Moors," or Arab traders of the west, 



12 JAVA 

were hostile to his enterprise ; but the Zemindar of 
Calicut gave him a letter to the King of Portugal, asking 
for "gold, silver, and scarlet/' and offering in return 
cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pepper, and precious stones. 
The safe return of da Gama stimulated the greed of the 
Portuguese. The king commissioned his admirals to 
acquire territory and to spread the Christian faith. 

The second expedition, of thirteen ships, set out in the 
winter of 1499. Cabral, the leader, losing his bearings, 
discovered the coast of Brazil, but eventually arrived at 
Calicut, founding factories there and at Cochin. 

In 1502 Pope Alexander VI. proclaimed the King of 
Portugal lord of the lands and seas and commerce of 
Africa, Persia, and India. In that year da Gama made 
his second voyage, his fleet numbering twenty vessels. 
Next year Alfonso de Albuquerque — the only Portuguese 
to leave a savoury reputation in the East — commanded 
one of three fleets. In 1505 Almeida set sail with no 
less than fifteen thousand troops. 1 In 1509 Albu- 
querque succeeded him as second Viceroy of India. 
Failing to reduce Calicut, which Vasco da Gama had 
bombarded in 1502, he fell upon Goa. 

Henceforth the admirals had sought to trade only with 
India. Now, in 15 10, Albuquerque visited Sumatra. 
Capturing Malacca in the following year, he sent envoys 
to all parts of the Archipelago, announcing his desire to 
trade. To Java and the Moluccas he sent one Antonio 
de Abrew, who formally took possession of Amboin, 
opened up the Molucca trade, and on returning called 
at many Javanese ports. 

Albuquerque, after a voyage to Arabia, returned to 
Goa, only to die there in 1515. He had won the friend- 
ship of many Hindu princes, and was so just a ruler 
and a friend that his tomb was long venerated both 
by Hindus and Mahomedans. 

1 Most of these fleets touched at Bahia, on the Brazilian coast ; 
the Brazilian trade was in fact developed by the Indian fleets, 
while the possibility of refitting and provisioning in Brazil and 
Madagascar greatly facilitated the Indian trade. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 13 

The King of Malacca, who had been expelled by the 
Portuguese, was cruising vengefully, with piratical in- 
tentions, in the Straits of Singapore, so that vessels sailing 
to the Spice Islands (the Moluccas) were forced to go by 
way of the Straits of Baban. 

In 1522 one de Lerne was sent to Bantam, which was 
still a Hindu kingdom, to establish commercial relations. 
The king was then being pressed by the Mahomedans, 
and inclined to make terms with the Portuguese. He 
promised a site for a factory, freedom of trade, and an 
annual payment of one thousand bags of pepper, if the 
Portuguese would build a fort to defend the port. In 
due course, permission having been obtained from the 
King of Portugal, Francisco de Sa arrived to build 
the desired fort ; only to find that the exiled and 
Mahomedan King of Malacca had just seized the 
city, and was master of the State. For the time being 
all hope of settlement on Javanese soil was abandoned. 

The cruelties of Albuquerque's successors caused the 
princes of Western India to revolt, in concert with the 
King of Achin. They were severely defeated ; nor was 
the King of Achin more successful when in 1578 he 
besieged Malacca ; the tiny Portuguese garrison inflicting 
upon him a loss of ten thousand men. In 1615 and in 
1628 the Achinese again attacked Malacca, again to be 
repulsed. 

Towards the end of the sixteenth century the Indian 
trade had assumed immense proportions, and Lisbon 
was the richest port of Europe. Portugal was empress 
of the seas. As many as 250 vessels would leave Goa in 
a single convoy. 

Hitherto the Portuguese had made no extensive terri- 
torial conquests, but had seized and garrisoned many 
cities, had built many factories, and had acquired a few 
strips of land. A few of the smaller islands were actually 
or nominally Portuguese, and commercial treaties were 
concluded with many friendly States. The number, size, 
and armament of their vessels enabled them to beat off 
pirates and to drive many of the Malay and Arab traders 



14 JAVA 

from the narrow seas ; thus their monopoly was absolute, 
as far as Europe was concerned, from Japan to Arabia, 
and from India to Madagascar ; while the Atlantic 
coasts of Africa and Brazil were largely in their hands. 

In 1580, however, Dom Sebastiao was killed in battle, 
and Philip II. of Spain was not long in annexing 
Portugal. 

Spain needed all her money and all her men to 
further her European policy. For a time, however, the 
trade from Lisbon held its own, and even increased ; 
but it was ill-defended, so that the Dutch and English 
quickly became formidable rivals. 

While Lisbon had been the emporium of the Eastern 
trade, the Dutch ports had become the chief distributing 
centres. Both Holland and England were eager to 
break the monopoly ; but for more than seventy years 
the Portuguese kept the secret of the Cape route. 

As early as 1496 the four Cabots had attempted the 
north-west passage ; their voyage ending in the discovery, 
not of India, but of Virginia. In 1553 Willoughby 
attempted the north-east passage, but was frozen in and 
died. Chancellor, his lieutenant, found his way into 
the White Sea, and, marching south to Moscow, laid the 
foundations of the Russian Company, which was formed 
to carry on the overland trade with Persia and India. 
Other explorers vainly attempted the Arctic routes. At 
length Drake, in 1573, on his voyage round the world, 
put in at Ternate, one of the Moluccas, whose king 
agreed to supply England with all the cloves which his 
island yielded. In 1579 Stephens, an Oxford graduate 
and a Jesuit, landed in India ; his letters home caused 
a great sensation among the City merchants. In 1583 
three English traders sailed to India as private adven- 
turers. One, after being imprisoned by the Portuguese, 
entered the service of the Great Mogul ; another, after 
travelling through Burmah, Pegu, Siam, Ceylon, and the 
Malay Peninsula, returned to England ; one settled at 
Goa as a trader. In 1599 the Dutch, who had at last 
appeared on the scene, and had already gained a footing 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 15 

in spite of the Portuguese monopoly, raised the price of 
pepper from 3s. to 8s. per lb. The English now knew 
the way to the East, and promptly formed the English 
East India Company, in order to obtain the spices of 
the East directly. This Company, absorbing all its rivals, 
endured until 1823. 

The first voyage was undertaken in 1602 ; relations 
were established with the King of Achin, the Moluccas, 
and Bantam, where a factory was erected. Further 
voyages resulted in extended relations, and the Company 
prospered rapidly ; but in 1623, as a result of the mas-* 
sacre of Amboin, when the British settlement was 
destroyed by the Dutch, who had taken the island from 
the Portuguese in 1605, it withdrew from most of its 
East Indian posts, and quickly became absorbed in 
operations on the mainland of India. Compensation 
for this infamous massacre was exacted by Cromwell 
some thirty years later. 

To return to the Dutch : the secret route to the 
Indies being at last discovered, Cornelius Houtman had 
rounded the Cape in 1595. The Portuguese were still 
endeavouring to reduce Bantam ; Houtman agreed to 
assist them provided that he might erect a factory when 
the port was captured. 

The Portuguese fleets and ports being ill-defended by 
Spain, the Dutch became not merely successful com- 
petitors, but seized the Portuguese possessions in the 
East, as they did on the coast of Brazil. Trading com- 
panies began to spring up in the Netherlands ; in 1602 
the Dutch East Indies Company was formed, which 
absorbed all its rivals, as did the English Company. 
Within a few years the Dutch were established on every 
hand : in India, Ceylon, Sumatra, Java, the Moluccas, 
and elsewhere. 

Reviewing the century's progress, we find that at the 
outset the Company obtained only sites of factories and 
forts. There were still emperors of Java; the house of 
Demak gave place to the empire of Mataram, whose 
capital, Kartasura, was near the site of the modern 



16 JAVA 

Surakarta. In 1610 the first Dutch Governor-General 
was appointed. Finding the Dutch position in Bantam 
indifferent, he removed in 1618 to Djakatra. In 1621 
the new settlement was called Batavia, and became the 
capital of the Company's government. The choice of 
site was disastrous : at one time a million Dutch soldiers 
and officials perished of fever within twenty years ; a 
fact hardly surprising, since the town was built in the 
European fashion upon the pestilential swamps of the 
coast. 

Then followed the interminable war between Holland 
and England, which ended only in 1688, By 1683 the 
English had withdrawn from Bantam. Peace once 
concluded, they became deeply engaged in India. The 
Portuguese had almost vanished from the East ; except 
in India the Dutch were supreme. In 1705 they 
obtained the Preangers by treaty ; in 1745 they gained 
possession of the northern seaboard; and in 1755 the 
empire of Mataram was divided into the states of Djok- 
jakarta and Surakarta. 

The history of the Dutch Company is unsavoury. It 
was an armed instrument for extracting wealth ; that it 
might have a freer hand even soldiers and minor officials 
were confined, as far as possible, to Batavia. It de- 
manded fixed quantities of produce or money from the 
native rulers ; but at first it left the dirty work of collect- 
ing such produce to the rulers themselves, asking no 
inconvenient questions. Afterwards it took hand in the 
work itself to a limited extent. Even in the days of the 
Crown administration this system was again put in force ; 
an iniquity (much as it finally profited the native race) 
exposed by Douwes Dekker in his novel Max Havelaar, 
the work of an official who had lived his life as a Dutch 
official in Java. 

Cruelty and lack of conscience was the first of the 
Company's mistakes. The second mistake was that it 
based its expectations, not upon the general wealth and 
development of the country, but simply upon the mono- 
poly in spices. Both monopoly and supremacy were 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 17 

broken by Clive in 1758, when he inflicted upon the 
Dutch the ignominious defeat of Chinsurah. 

When the Franco-English War of 1781 broke out the 
Company was already failing. In that same year 
Thomas Stamford Raffles was born at sea, off the coast 
of Jamaica. In these two events lay the seed of a new 
order of things. 

In 1780 the States, by a majority of one, had decided 
to adopt the policy of " armed neutrality " ; in other 
words, to side with France and Russia as against Eng- 
land. War broke out at once, although the Stadtholder 
and the Court were opposed to the popular party. Peace 
was concluded in 1783, but the Dutch were forced to 
admit the English to free trade throughout the Indies. 

In 1795 the Stadtholder fled to England before the 
forces of the French Revolution, and the Batavian 
Republic came into being ; to be followed, in 1806, by 
the Bonaparte monarchy. In 1810 the honest Louis, 
unable to protect his people against his brother, retired, 
and Holland became part of France. 

Already England had absorbed many of the Dutch 
possessions in the East ; but Java still remained in the 
grip of the terrible Daendels. In 181 1, however, the 
French flag was run up at Batavia. In the same year 
the British flag replaced it, after a decisive battle at 
Weltevreden, delivered by Auchtermuty at the head of 
seven thousand troops. The remnant of the colonial 
army, led by the French General Jumelle, escaped to 
Samarang, where it capitulated on September 18th. 
Raffles was Lieutenant-Governor of the new British 
colony, being subject to Lord Minto, the Company's 
Governor in India. 

III. 

Raffles was admitted to the India House, as an extra 
clerk, at the age of fourteen. Ten years later, thanks to 
his unremitting industry, his supple intelligence, and 
the friendship of the secretary to the Company, he was 

3 



18 JAVA 

appointed assistant secretary to the Governor of Penang, 
his salary being increased from ^ioo to ^1,500. He 
married, before sailing, the widow of a Company surgeon, 
learned Malay upon the voyage, and upon landing was 
already a fair scholar. 

A man of supreme capacity and flexibility, who had 
never mingled in society, was untouched by convention 
or tradition, and was therefore able to reap the full 
advantage of his unusual good sense ; an ardent patriot, 
a keen man of business, and a far-seeing statesman ; he 
must, under ordinary conditions, have eaten his heart out 
among dull and incompetent colleagues and lamentable 
seniors. The fact that Lord Minto was Governor- 
General, while that erratic genius John Leyden held a 
post of influence, enabled him to do lasting and im- 
perial work, though the tentacles of mediocrity dragged 
him down in the end. 

It is impossible here to consider his work for England ; 
we must consider his career in respect of Java only: 
Java, which he always maintained should be retained by 
England as a jewel in her crown of empire. It is enough 
to say that after doing most valuable work in spite of 
dull or timid superiors and disloyal colleagues, he was 
appointed by Lord Minto to be Agent with the Malay 
States and Lieutenant-Governor of Java. 

Daendels, a pitiless Jacobin, sent out to Java to re- 
organise the colonial forces, had utterly exhausted the 
resources of the country. His legacy to England con- 
sisted of a military road built at the cost of countless 
lives, and a bankrupt and terrorised people. 

Raffles was actuated by the feeling that it was the plain 
duty of England to give this people a just, humane, and 
suitable government ; to restore it to wealth ; and finally, 
to make it a source of imperial strength and profit. He 
considered that retirement on the part of his country 
would be a betrayal, a cruel desertion. 

He immediately gained the confidence and gratitude of 
the Dutch population. The Sultan and Susuhunan were 
restive, seeing an opportunity of revolt : Raffles handled 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 19 

them with consummate skill, promising both protection, 
Minto had already abolished torture : Raffles revolution- 
ised the entire legal system. The original system of 
village or communal government was revived ; the island 
was ruled through its natural hierarchy, the native aris- 
tocracy, advised by European colleagues. The country 
was redivided. The old forced deliveries of crops, by 
which the Company had lived, were abolished. 

Raffles then proceeded to reform the land tenure. The 
Dutch had forced the natives to deliver all their crops, 
had bought them for a song, and resold what the 
natives actually required for subsistence at iniquitously 
high prices. Daendels had salaried the receiving officials, 
who had previously lived by percentage and peculation, 
but had left the system untouched. 

After a long and exhaustive tour of inquiry, and 
innumerable interviews with natives of every rank, 
Raffles decided to let the land to the natives upon long 
leases, abolishing forced deliveries. At the outset the 
village headman let the land ; but this arrangement was 
provisional, the tenant at last holding his land by lease 
directly from the Government. The rent was paid in 
kind, but was fixed ; it was collected, under supervision, 
by the chief, or headman. This revolution destroyed the 
evils of the feudal system ; the former regents were 
granted pensions and estates in compensation, and in 
return for administrative duties. 

Within two years of the introduction of the new 
system the land rental yielded nearly half the revenue of 
Java. Unfortunately the enforced use of paper money 
resulted in an exchange rate of twelve to thirteen. This 
condition of affairs was largely due to Daendels. To 
remedy or at least to alleviate this depreciation Raffles 
decided to sell a portion of the public domain : a measure 
for which he was savagely criticised, but which none the 
less did much to increase the exploitation of the soil. 
As a result of jealousy and the hasty charges of a former 
friend, Raffles was requested in 1815 to withdraw from 
his position in Java ; a piece of injustice which was felt 



20 JAVA 

the more bitterly because his work had not as yet been 
given time to justify itself by results. It was stated, as a 
complaint, that at the end of four years of administration 
his budget showed a deficit. That is true ; but it is also 
true that in spite of the fact that these were years of 
revolution and reconstruction the deficit was less than it 
had been for more than twelve years ; moreover, it was 
less each year, and had the rate of decrease continued 
constant (but it would undoubtedly have improved) two 
years longer would have shown a surplus, after which the 
island would have been not merely self-supporting but 
an asset of imperial wealth. 

Already it had been decided that Java was to be re- 
turned to Holland. Raffles was appointed Resident in 
Bencoolen, Sumatra ; but almost at the moment of his 
retirement a curious conspiracy was unmasked at the 
court of the Susuhunan. This monarch, at whose court 
was a guard of sepoys, had attended their Hindu services, 
and had given them, for purposes of worship, some 
antique Hindu idols preserved in the palace. The 
sepoys thereupon sought to persuade themselves and him 
that he was a descendent of Ra, destined by the gods to 
restore the Hindu empire. Had he declared himself his 
people would probably have followed, and a terrible 
upheaval might have convulsed the islands. Raffles 
quickly subdued the rising, without severity and without 
a display of force. 

Java was actually taken over by the Government of 
Holland in 1818. The Dutch had the wisdom to 
recognise the excellence of Raffles' work, and continued 
to govern according to the system he had created. 

Of the return to the bad old methods known as the 
u system of forced cultures " there is only one good word 
to say. It resulted in the reclamation of yet more virgin 
soil ; so that the effect of this system, together with the 
reforms instituted by Raffles, was an increase in the 
population from 4,500,000 to 30,000,000 in less than a 
century. 

The last serious hostilities in Java broke out in 1825, 




< 

H 

Z 

O 

W 
Q 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 21 

when Dipo Negoro claimed the entire island. The 
rebellion was subdued at the cost of five years of warfare 
and the loss of fifteen thousand men. When at length the 
island was pacified the hold of the Dutch was firmer than 
ever. There were further attempts at revolt, when the 
Mahomedan priests sought to persuade the people that 
Dipo Negoro had returned, or was still alive. The most 
serious attempt was in 1849, when the exile was in 
Macassar. He died in 1855, and the last rebellion was 
in 1888. These revolts have resulted in the entire loss 
of local independence. In 1848 sweeping reforms were 
introduced by the Grondwet, or Fundamental Law ; and 
during the last sixty years the Government has grown 
more and more paternal, humane, and enlightened, until 
it is now an example to other nations. The increasing 
immigration of private colonists has had an excellent 
effect, and has fulfilled the colony's natural destiny. 

Hostilities still continue in Sumatra, in the jungles of 
Achin, but only on a small scale, as all the towns are in 
the hands of the Dutch. This Achinese War has been 
well-nigh interminable, and the cost in lives and money 
has been deplorable. The pacification of the country is 
at last at hand. 

The chief problem of the present day is that of native 
education. Until recently a knowledge of Dutch or of 
Occidental learning was denied to the Javanese, lest they 
should consider themselves the equals or superiors of 
their masters. We may suppose the Dutch to have taken 
warning by the results of education in other parts of the 
East. 

But the Javanese (the Malay is a poor scholar) is eager 
for Western learning ; yet not so much for its own sake 
as for what he hopes it will give him : power, con- 
sideration, social promotion, a career, and ultimately, 
perhaps, national self-government as a federated colony. 
He has seen the Japanese change from a secluded feudal 
people to a civilised power in the space of forty years, 
and forgets that even in their seclusion (which was a 
comparatively recent matter) they were, as they had been 



22 JAVA 

for centuries, a powerful and highly civilised nation under 
a stable government. 

Java has always been a congeries of little states ; some- 
times temporarily federated, sometimes hostile ; unaf- 
fected by caste, but aristocratic by principle. It is, and 
will always be, a land of agricultural wealth. Owing 
to the docile nature of the people, the prevalence of 
agriculture, and the aristocratic framework of society, 
there is no need in Java for an enormous bureaucracy. 
Yet that, one may suppose, is what its youth would 
expect if educated in the rash yet timid manner usual in 
the East. In India university graduates, instructed 
rather than educated, crammed w T ith traditional facts, 
but unable to handle new ones, or to co-ordinate or 
deduct, are forced to work at the loom for a living. 
What work could be found for the Javanese youth if 
similarly trained ? The number of Dutch officials is 
already small, and cannot be decreased with profit to rulers 
or to ruled. There is no room and no occasion for any 
large degree of further self-government ; and at present the 
Javanese, not being fanatical Mahomedans, and having 
no system of caste, trust and respect the Europeans. 
The problem of general education has accordingly hung 
fire ; although the sons or successors of regents have for 
some time received adequate instruction of a suitable 
type. 

It is to be hoped that the situation will find a natural 
solution. The Javanese will probably perceive that his 
future lies in the exploitation of the soil. If he desires 
to live as the Europeans do, to meet them on reasonably 
equal terms, and to assume identical interests, he has but 
to cultivate the land as do the planters, or to enter upon 
the upper walks of commerce, where a special education 
might enable him to oust the Chinaman. 
' The Javanese as things are has to learn three tongues — 
the High and the Low Javanese, and Malay; literary Malay 
may make a fourth. If he learn Dutch as well, a limit 
is set at once to what else he can learn in a curriculum 
of ordinary duration. Agriculture he must study, with 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 23 

its underlying sciences. If, as is probable, his education 
finally assumes this form, he will hardly be able to learn 
alien philosophies and political theories which are only 
likely to be harmful to an ordinary Oriental, unless he be 
of exceptional intelligence and have leisure to travel in 
the West. A practical scientific training, moreover, 
seldom fails to teach the recipient that system of 
method, that power of co-ordination and constructive 
thought, which are usually so dismally lacking in the 
modernised Oriental. 

The East Indies stand to-day, like Brazil, on the edge 
of a new era. They form a land of plenty, but their full 
development is a matter of the future. In that future the 
natives, if only because of the rate at which they increase, 
must play an ever-increasing part ; the Malay more 
especially as sailor, fisherman, plantation-hand, labourer ; 
the Javanese as planter, cultivator, and artisan. At 
present the native aristocracy, who used to rule as feudal 
chiefs, and now rule for and with the Dutch, are paid 
heavy salaries and own large estates. As all their 
descendants cannot become regents or bureaucrats, it is 
obviously in their interest to learn the management of 
estates, with all that is thereby entailed. As the Outer 
Possessions become more fully developed and settled 
there may be a limited official scope for the youth of 
Java ; but only, as a general thing, where the local rulers 
are inefficient. A time must come when the soil of the 
Indies will present itself to the native, as to the colonist, 
as the natural source of wealth ; and in Sumatra the coal 
measures point to the probability of future industrial 
development. It is to be hoped that in course of time 
the professions of agriculture and industry will afford 
the upper-class native competence and an honourable 
calling. If there are prejudices to be overcome, it is to 
be hoped that a wise education will naturally break them 
down. The nationalist cry is only dangerous when it is 
a demand that a helpless and ignorant people shall be 
handed over to a horde of semi- Westernised lawyers, 
agitators, bureaucrats, and contractors. It is to be 



24 JAVA 

hoped that the Indies have once and for all passed the 
period of spoliation ; and there is every indication that 
the wise and paternal rule of the Dutch, and the lack of 
enormous urban populations, will for ever be a safeguard 
against the poisonous growth of a spurious nationalism. 
But we cannot be surprised if the Dutch, with India and 
Egypt before their eyes, prefer to proceed with the utmost 

caution. 

BERNARD MIALL. 



CHAPTER II 

GENERALITIES 

I. The importance, area, and population of the Dutch East Indies. — 
II. Administrative divisions of the Dutch East Indies, and the 
best method of studying them. — III. European, and, in parti- 
cular, Dutch intervention, in the East Indies. — IV. Physical 
characteristics of the Archipelago. — V. The races which inhabit 
them. — VI. The principal languages spoken ; and which must 
be learned by the European settling in the Indies. 



I. 

The Dutch East Indies are well worth knowing ; they 
are favoured by nature above most other lands ; their 
present rulers afford a rare example of a political 
intelligence which is equally tenacious and sagacious, 
and their system of administration is full of valuable 
lessons for the other Colonial Powers of Europe. 

The kingdom of Holland, or the Netherlands, has an 
area of 12,700 square miles, and a population of about 
5,000,000. Her Asiatic possessions, which lie between 
95 and 141 east longitude, and 6° north and n° south 
latitude, are known as the Dutch East Indies (Neder- 
landsch-OosUIndie in Dutch, or simply Nederlandsch- 
Indi'e — Dutch India). These vast colonies are washed 
on the east by the great Pacific Ocean; on the north 
by the China Sea ; on the south and west by the Indian 
Ocean. 1 

* The groups of islands, great or small, which lie between the 
south-eastern extremity of Asia and the north-western portion of 
Australia, and of which the Dutch East Indies form a part, are 

25 



26 JAVA 

These possessions, known sometimes as the Indian 
or Malayan Archipelago, but more commonly as the 
East Indies, comprise an approximate area of 698,000 
square miles ; or fifty-eight times the area of Holland, 
and nearly three and a half times that of France. Their 
population is estimated at 37,402,500 inhabitants, or 
seven times that of Holland. 1 

These figures have no absolute value, however carefully 
they may have been determined. The very immensity 
of the colonial domain, the scattered positions of its 
various members, obstacles of a geographical nature, and 
the hostility of certain indigenous tribes in some of the 
islands, have necessarily resulted in the incomplete or 
superficial exploration of many regions. Particularly is 
this the case with the great island of Borneo, of which 
the Dutch portion alone has an estimated area of 212,600 
square miles, or seventeen times that of Holland. A 
more detailed and more scientific examination of the 
country during the last twenty years has revealed it in 
quite a new light. The area of Sumatra, which is nearly 
as large as Borneo, and far more intimately known, is 
still estimated by some travellers at 179,880 square miles, 
and by others at 167,470. 

We must not look for rigorous exactitude in the figures 
relating to the population ; once more, such figures have 
only an approximate value. We can imagine the diffi- 
culty, the impossibility even, of effecting a methodical 
census of these enormous tracts of land, which are but 

usually known in Holland as the Indian Archipelago ; in England, 
as the Malay Archipelago. In Germany also they are known as the 
Malay Archipelago (Malayische Archipel) ; or, following the example 
of Bastian, as Indonesia, the " Isles of India." In France they are 
known as the Asiatic Archipelago (Archipel Asiatique), and Elisee 
Reclus has introduced the graceful title of Insulinde, employed for 
the first time in the romance Max Havelaar, by Multatuli (E. Douwes 
Dekker), the famous Dutch author. See Blink, Nederlandsch Oost- 
en West- Indie) p. 19. 

1 30,098,000 for Java and Madura and 7,304,500 for the other 
Dutch possessions. See Regeerings Almanak voor Nederlandsch 
Indie, 1909, pp. 4-5 ; census of Dec. 31, 1905. 



GENERALITIES 27 

imperfectly known, and are often inhabited by peoples 
whose submission to Holland is purely official. The 
chief pitfall in such cases is the tendency to deduce the 
number of inhabitants from the area of the territory ; an 
error which the former explorers were, as a rule, only too 
ready to commit. Later, by a sort of reaction, the density 
of the population was estimated at a figure far below the 
reality. The census, in short, is accurate only in the 
case of Java ; the first island of the Archipelago to achieve 
civilisation, as it remains the most civilised to-day, as well 
as the richest and the most densely peopled. In Java, 
moreover, the Dutch domination is accepted without 
protest. Java, with its neighbour Madura, has an area 
of 50,600 square miles, and a population of 30,098,000 ; 
that is, it contains four-fifths of the total population of 
the Dutch East Indies. 



II. 

On account of the various inequalities between the 
different portions of their colonial empire — inequalities 
of area, population, and value, both intellectual and 
economic, as well as inequalities of civilisation — the 
Dutch have divided their East Indian possessions, from 
the administrative point of view, into two large depart- 
ments. The first includes Java and Madura ; the second 
the Outer Possessions, as they are called (Buitenbezit- 
tingen), with Sumatra, Borneo, and the other islands ; 
a division far superior to Java in the matter of area, 
but inferior in population and also in natural wealth, 
which is often considerable, but as yet is hardly known 
or badly exploited. 

In a book whose object is not only to describe the 
Dutch Indies from the physical and political point of 
view, but also to prove their economic importance, it 
will therefore be best, at the cost of a few repetitions, to 
study each of these two departments separately, lest we 
arrive at erroneous generalities, 



28 JAVA 



III. 



The conquest of so great an empire, and its continued 
possession for a space of nearly four centuries, is a proof 
of the admirable racial qualities of the Dutch ; qualities 
which owe something, perhaps, to good fortune. When, 
in the sixteenth century, they came into contact with 
Europe, the populations of the East Indies had already 
been subjected to the influence of two great civilisations: 
that of the Hindus and that of the Arabs. 

The Hindus, about the first century of the Christian 
era, being doubtless driven from their country by reli- 
gious persecution, brought to Java and Sumatra their arts, 
their beliefs, and their social organisation : all greatly 
superior to those which they found in the islands. They 
founded several powerful States : Menangkabau and 
Palembang in Sumatra, and Madjapahit in Java. First 
Brahmanism, and between the fifth and the sixth century 
Buddhism, flourished with a vigour which is still attested 
by the wonderful ruins of Prambanan and Boro-Budur. 
Towards the thirteenth century (but this date is still 
uncertain) these faiths were replaced by Islam ; brought 
first of all by Arab and Persian merchants to the eastern 
coast of Sumatra, and thereafter overrunning the whole 
Malay Peninsula and the entire Malayan Archipelago, 
either by means of pacific proselytism or through the 
warlike fervour of the early Mahomedan states. To this 
day five-sixths of the population of the Dutch East 
Indies profess the faith of Islam, in name if not always 
in fact. 

In the sixteenth century the Europeans, known hitherto 
only in the shape of the Venetians, to whom the Arabs 
and Persians transmitted the precious spices which were 
grown in the Indian Archipelago, came at last as a con- 
quering power. First of all came the Portuguese, who, 
in 151 1, took possession of Malacca, whence they pro- 
ceeded to Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Celebes ; and then 
to the Moluccas, upon which they imposed their suze- 
rainty, with an eye especially to monopolising their 



GENERALITIES 29 

trade. The Spaniards had a footing in the Philippines 
from 1520 onwards. In 1580 the union under Philip II. 
of the crowns of Spain and Portugal resulted in the 
-possession by Spain of all the Portuguese colonies in 
India and the Indies. 

The first act of Philip, once master of Lisbon, was to 
forbid that port to the Dutch, his sometime subjects, 
who had revolted in 1572. The Dutch, the " waggoners 
of the sea," at this period depended absolutely upon 
Lisbon, whence they carried the spices of the Indies to 
ill parts of Europe. Stifled in their growing commercial 
power, they were condemned by this very fact either to 
disappear from the seas or to go themselves in search of 
the wealth of the Indies. But the two Iberian nations, 
who alone possessed the secret of the route, 1 guarded it 
with jealous care. The extremest penalties, even that of 
death, were decreed against those who should betray the 
secret. The Dutch resolved to solve it despite all 
obstacles. Two expeditions, which sought the Indies 
by way of the Antarctic Ocean, came to a disastrous 
end, which, in after years, was apotheosised in poetry ; 
but at length Cornelius Houtman of Gouda, who was 
trading secretly in Lisbon, succeeded while there in 
obtaining valuable information. Thrown into prison as 
the penalty, he succeeded in sending to Amsterdam the 
news of his discovery and his hopes, and of the heavy 
ransom which alone could set him free. The Dutch 
merchants immediately clubbed together to deliver him, 
and, in possession of his secret, founded, with him and 
his brother, a commercial undertaking known as the 
Company of Distant Countries (Compagnie van verve) ; 
a title as vague and as splendid as their hopes. An 
expedition left the Texel in 1595, consisting of four 
vessels and 250 well-armed men, including Jan Molenaer 

x Portugal discovered the route by rounding the Cape of Good 
Hope ; Spain by threading the Straits of Magellan. The charts 
showing the route were given each voyage to the captain of the 
vessel, and were taken from him upon his return, and had to be kept 
secret from every eye but his. 



30 JAVA 

and C. and F. Houtman. It recruited off Madagascar, 1 
and in 1596 landed first in Sumatra, and then at Bantan 2 — 
the Bantam of the ancient Dutch and Portuguese traders. 
From that time forward expeditions from Holland 
succeeded one another in the Indian Ocean, with a 
tenacity equal to their boldness ; and Batavia, which 
was formerly known as Jakatra or Djakatra, was founded 
in 1619. Shortly afterwards Holland took advantage of 
the insufficient defence on the part of Spain of the former 
Portuguese colonies, and of the violent rupture between 
the two countries in 1660, by appropriating the Portu- 
guese possessions which were no longer properly 
defended ; and this in the West Indies and South 
America as well as in the Malay Peninsula and the 
Archipelago, Her progress was arrested only by the 
competition of England, a far more powerful rival. 
During the whole of the eighteenth century England 
was disputing these vast possessions with Holland ; first 
in India, then in the Malay Peninsula and the Indian 
Archipelago. For a time Holland was almost completely 
dispossessed by her, when the Batavian Republic, later 
the Kingdom of Holland of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, 
was willy-nilly compelled by Napoleon the First to take 
a hand in his politics.3 

1 F. Houtman compiled the first known Malagasy vocabulary. 

2 Houtman was not opposed by the Portuguese ; they rather 
welcomed him as an ally, being then at war with the king of 
Bantam. In return for their services the Dutch obtained permission 
to build a factory, which they eventually had to abandon, as their 
arrogance and brutality provoked the natives, and in the ensuing hos- 
tilities they shot down a large number of the latter. Raffles was under 
the impression that Houtman had been employed by the Portuguese 
in the East Indian trade. On the way to Bantam the Dutch 
anchored off Madeira, where the prince wished to pay his respects : 
but they fell into a panic upon observing the size of his escort, 
and massacred nearly all. Raffles remarks that even thus early 
the Dutch exhibited the mixture of haughty superiority and extra- 
ordinary timidity and suspicion which characterised all their 
subsequent proceedings. — [Trans.] 

3 Concerning this period, see O. Collet, L'ile de Java sous la 
domination fran$aise (Paris, 1909, large 8vo), 



GENERALITIES 31 

The treaties of 1814 and 1815 re-established the House 
of Nassau on the Dutch throne, and compelled England 
to restore the Indies. England even renounced her 
pretensions to Banka in return for the cession of Cochin 
and its dependencies on the Malabar coast. An under- 
standing was then arrived at between the two nations, 
India and the Malay Peninsula being completely sur- 
rendered to England, and the Indies to jthe Dutch, who 
in 1824, according to the treaties of London, abandoned 
their remaining settlements in India and the Malacca 
Peninsula, including the island of Singapore, while 
England abandoned all claims to Sumatra and Billiton. 1 

In order to become absolute mistress in her sphere of 
empire, Holland even endeavoured, but without success, 
to obtain, by sale or exchange, that portion of Timor 
which was still in the hands of the Portuguese. She 
did not succeed ; but the treaty of 1859 did at least very 
precisely delimit the frontier between the Dutch and 
Portuguese portions of the island. 

To-day, in the eyes of Europe, Holland is the undis- 
puted mistress of the Indian Archipelago, excepting only 
the Portuguese portion of Timor and the north-western 
portion of the great island of Borneo, where the formerly 
independent Sultanates of Brunei and of Sarawak (the 
latter founded by the English adventurer famous as Rajah 
Brooke), and the British North Borneo Company, still 
occupy wide territories. 2 

IV. 

Unity of possession seemed almost a logical conse- 
quence of the remarkable geological and physical unity 
of all the portions of this great empire. 

1 An island between Banka and Borneo, called also Bilitong, or 
Blitung. 

2 These two Sultanates are to-day under the protection of the 
English Crown, which recognised the services of James Brooke 
in the cause of colonial expansion by creating him a baronet. A 
volume of great interest is "The Private Letters of Sir James Brooke, 
Rajah of Sarawak, narrating the events of his life, from 1838 to the 
present time," edited by J, C, Templer, London, 1853, 3 vols. 8vo. 



32 JAVA 

Despite the disparate sizes of the various islands, and 
the vast dimensions of some, the Dutch East Indies, 
from Sumatra to New Guinea, are all of the same 
geological structure. From east to west is a rampart 
of volcanoes, far-flung in the arc of a gigantic circle, 
which crosses the shallow waters of many straits. The 
various islands are based upon the north on the same 
submarine tableland, above which lies an enclosed, 
peaceful sea ; while the outward shores are separated 
from the nearest land by vast abysses of ocean ; even 
from those countries which seem, as do the Philippines, 
to be closely akin to the islands of the Archipelago. The 
islands of Sumatra and Java, sloping almost directly from 
their heights into the profound depths of the southern 
sea, show to the north a lower seaboard, a coast-line 
more idented, cut into many bays ; but the volcanic soil, 
brought down by rivers and drifted by the coastwise 
currents, is slowly filling the harbours and adding to the 
area of the land. 

Nearly all the rivers of importance, moreover, flow 
into that inner sea, by which Sumatra, Java, Borneo, 
Celebes, and their innumerable satellites, are united 
rather than divided. 

The rainy seasons and the climate are almost the 
same in all the islands of the Archipelago ; there are, 
of course, inevitable modifications, but the climate is 
tropical without excessive variation, and in general may 
be called equable. The flora and fauna, despite their 
wealth and astonishing variety, have in all parts a simi- 
larity, and at the same time a peculiarity of their own, 
which does not permit of their attribution to any of the 
neighbouring countries. Situated between India and 
Australia, the Malay Archipelago forms a harmonious 
transition between these two countries. To the west its 
magnificent fauna and flora possess distinct character- 
istics which yet recall India ; to the east they prophesy 
Australia, by forms no less varied, often equally strange, 
and always richer and more abundant. 



GENERALITIES 33 

V. 

In the matter of the races which inhabit the East 
Indies, we find a variety of types apparently as great as 
the variety of the flora and fauna — a variety which has 
often confounded the ethnologists, and has given rise to 
many theories. We shall confine ourselves to recalling, 
in its broader aspects, the theory which appears to us 
to correspond most closely to the actual facts. We find, 
in the Indian or Malay Archipelago, of which the Dutch 
East Indies form a part, four great ethnical groups, of very 
unequal intellectual capacity and numerical value. These 
four groups are the Malays, the Indonesians, the Negritos, 
and the Papuans. The Malays and the Indonesians, by 
far the more numerous, form the basis of the population 
of the Dutch East Indies. It is believed that there are 
Negritos in the archipelago of Rhio and Lingga ; but 
even were they not to be found in the Dutch possessions 
we ought not to pass them by, since they do exist in the 
Malay Peninsula, and also in the Philippines, which 
islands the Dutch East Indies resemble at so many 
points. 

The Papuans (from the Malay puwa-puwa, u who have 
crinkled hair ") are found in New Guinea, and also, to 
a limited extent, on the islands of Waigeu, Salvatti, 
and Aru ; while groups related to the Papuans inhabit 
the islands of Buru, Ceram, Kei, and Tenimber, 1 and 
are possibly descended from Papuan slaves. Natives 
of Papuan origin are also to be found in the Moluccas, 
Timor, and Flores. It has been suggested that the 
Kalangs of Java — a race in customs comparable to the 
gipsies of Europe — might be of Negrito origin; but the 
suggestion is of no value. 

The principal ethnic groups of the Dutch Indies, 
which do not differ very greatly from one another, 
consist of the Malays and the Indonesians. The term 
Indonesian denotes the comparatively pure races which 

1 Or the Tenimber Islands, or Timor Laut : a group of sixty- six 
little islands in the Molucca Archipelago. 

4 



34 JAVA 

inhabit the interior of the large islands, such as the 
Dyaks of Borneo, the Bataks of Sumatra, and the Alfurs 
or Alfours of Celebes and the Moluccas. Unlike the 
Polynesians, who are tall and brachycephalic, the Indo- 
nesians are seldom above 5 ft. 2 in. in height, and are 
mesocephalic or dolichocephalic. Both races are yellow- 
skinned : their hair is straight or slightly curling ; only the 
form of the nose, lips, &c, is slightly different. 

The Malays, on the contrary, although slightly taller 
than the Indonesians (the average height being 5 ft. 3*4 in.), 
and brachycephalic, resemble the latter very closely, but 
the Malays are a mixed race and in consequence present 
a much greater variety of types than the Indonesians. 
If, as is believed, the Malays — by which we mean the 
Malays proper (of Menangkabau, the Malay Peninsula, 
and the coasts of many islands), as well as the Javanese, 
the Madurese, and the Sundanese — are born of the 
mingling of Indonesian with Hindu, Arab, Chinese, 
Burman, Negrito, and Papuan elements, then the Indo- 
nesians should be the type of pure Malays — the Proto- 
malays y in a word ; and this theory appears to be very 
close to the truth. In Java the Indonesians are deeply 
crossed with Chinese blood ; the Hindu element is easily 
recognisable in Bali, Sumatra, and certain portions of 
Java ; and the Arab element is dominant among the 
Malays of Padang and in Atjeh. In the north of the 
Archipelago the influence of Negrito x blood is visible, 
although the signs of Papuan blood are found only in 
the south-east. 

The appearance of the inhabitant of the Dutch East 
Indies varies according to the ethnic group to which he 
belongs and his social position. The farmer, merchant, 
fisherman, artisan, and pirate are not likely to possess the 
same exterior, the same bearing. 

Speaking generally, the Malay or the Indonesian is 

1 See T. Deniker, Les races et les peuples de la terre (Paris, 
1900, 8vo), p. 554 et seq. See also the article on Rassen (" Races ") 
in the Encycl. v. Ned. Indie, which contains an excellent exposition 
and bibliography of the question of the races of the Dutch Indies* 



GENERALITIES 35 

shorter than the European ; he is nearly always thin, 
but well-built and respectably muscular, with the chest 
well developed 1 ; the joints, hands, and feet are small, 
giving an impression of strength and suppleness. His 
skin, of a colour varying from a light ruddy brown to an 
olive yellow, is usually smooth and hairless ; his head is 
flat and wide, the cheek-bones are salient, and the nose of 
the " pudding " or " pug " variety ; the eyes are slightly 
oblique, and the large, thick-lipped mouth is ill-concealed 
by a thin moustache. The hair is very black, and harsh 
to the touch. All these characteristics, together with a 
mask of all but impenetrable impassivity, constitute a 
physiognomy which the unaccustomed European finds 
disquieting rather than attractive, and of which the 
finished type is found in the true Malay. It has a certain 
touch of savagery, of strangeness — a quality which is 
lacking or attenuated in the Javanese, whose more slender 
physique attains at times a positive degree of graceful 
elegance and reveals in every movement their gentler 
breeding. The Madurese, Sundanese, and Bugis, of 
more mingled race and more powerful physique, are 
more like the Malays. 

All these various races have a keen intelligence, 
capable of improvement, retaining the traces of a high 
civilisation ; and under their reticent aspect they are 
almost always polite and well-disposed towards the 
stranger. 

Although they have never risen to the conception of a 
great political union, or even the idea of an immense 
federation of the States of the Indian Archipelago — a 
state of affairs which would assuredly, in view of the 
large and warlike populations of many of these States, 
have closed the Archipelago to Europeans — yet the 
memory of their past, and their refined susceptibilities, 
have often rendered the management of certain of these 
peoples by the Dutch a matter of considerable difficulty. 

The most submissive were always the Javanese ; the 
Malays, prouder and more energetic, submit to the yoke 
with more impatience, and in certain districts (for 



36 JAVA 

example, Atjeh, or Achin, in Sumatra) they are still 
desperately struggling to avoid it. 

The pride of the Malay seems to derive wholly from 
his character and beliefs. He is violent and vindictive ; 
as eager to feel and avenge an injury to his self-respect 
as is the Japanese, who, according to a recent theory, 
is a relative of the Malay ; * and his loyalty is reputed 
uncertain. Moreover, he is a Mussulman, with so ardent 
and so ancient a faith that throughout the Indian Archi- 
pelago Malay and Mahomedan are synonymous terms. 
He is conscious of a bitter pride in belonging to a 
religious community which is, in another fashion, as 
mighty as the political power under whose domination 
he lives. A farmer in many places, but more often a 
sailor, he is famous for his knowledge of the seas of the 
Archipelago. A trader, and on occasion a pirate, the 
Malay owes his reputation of extraordinary courage and 
audacity to his long history of fierce conflicts, and owing 
to his recklessness and lack of scruples the importance of 
his position is out of all proportion to his numerical 
strength. 

Extremely courageous, the Malays are also better 
workers than the Javanese ; but, like the Chinese, whose 
commercial talent they share, though in a less degree, 
they will often squander the savings of a year on 
cock-fighting, gambling, women, opium, and haschish. 2 

1 See chapter ii. of LEmpire japonais et sa vie econornique, by 
J. Dautremer (Librairie Orientale et Americaine : E. Guilmoto). 

2 Our author makes no mention of hemp, attributing the state of 
amok to opium. This, as is well known, is incorrect ; a long period 
of abstinence from opium causes a peculiar form of poisoning, 
accompanied by excruciating pains and an unendurable nervous 
distress of the kind known as " massive " — i.e,, felt in every nerve 
of the body, and especially in the pneumogastric system — a system 
of nerves of which we are. as a rule, unconscious. This abominable 
torture is, however, unaccompanied by any delirium or illusions ; 
nor are such caused by opium, despite the vulgar belief, the 
mind being, as a rule, unusually calm and clear. Indian hemp, 
or cannabis indica, or the preparation which is used for smoking, 
is a very different drug. Besides its characteristic reaction upon 
the nervous system after excess, it produces profuse visions and 



GENERALITIES 37 

Hemp (haschish), or opium, is smoked by the majority 
of the natives of the Dutch East Indies, and by the 
Malays in particular. The smoking of Indian hemp in 
particular renders the habitue subject to crises of 
maniacal fury, known by the term amok. This peculiar 
access of fury is preceded by the most violent depression ; 
it attacks the smoker suddenly, when he rushes through 
the streets, armed with his krees, slashing and killing all 
whom he meets. 

The vice of " running amok," which seems to have 
existed from a quite indeterminate period in the Malayan 
Peninsula and Archipelago, became so prevalent after 
the European occupation that the Dutch in the Indies 
and the English in Malacca finally passed sentence of 
death upon all natives captured in this condition. The 
singular diminution of cases of amok which followed 
leads one to believe that many acts of political or private 
vengeance were performed under the disguise of this 
peculiar form of mania. 

VI. 

The question of language in the East Indies is almost 
as complex as the question of races. On account of 
the multiplicity of tongues, augmented still further by 
the insular character of the Dutch colonial possessions, 
which has resulted in the birth of a considerable number 
of dialects ; we must not prematurely classify them in a 
genealogical system, or attempt to declare precisely the 
degree of natural relationship which connects them. 
Although the time has hardly come for this, the labours 
of the Dutch linguists have at least enabled us to state 
that the languages of the East Indies belong to the great 

illusions. Readers of the biographies of Omar Khayyam will 
remember that it was employed by Hassan, the schoolfellow of 
the poet, to give the novices of his extraordinary sect a foretaste of 
the Paradise to which their absolute obedience would admit them 
upon death. The followers of this remarkable religious and 
political murderer became known as assassins, the term being 
derived from the name Hassan ; hence the word haschish. — [Trans.] 



38 JAVA 

Malayo-Polynesian family, or at all events with rare 
exceptions. 

By general agreement they are divided into certain 
large groups which comprise a series of sub-divisions in 
the form of dialects. 

(a) Group of the Languages of Sumatra. — This com- 
prises Achinese (Atjeesch, the tongue of Atjeh), Gayo, 
Batak and its dialects (Mandailing, Toba, Dairi, Karo, 
&c.), Retjang, Lampong, Simalour, Nias, Mentawei, 
Engano, and especially the most important of all, Malay 
and its dialects (the Malay of Minangkabau, or Menang- 
kabau, of Riouw Lingga, Middle Malay, and Mamak). 

(b) Group of the Languages of Java.— -This group in- 
cludes Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, and their dialects. 

(c) Group of the Languages of Celebes and the neigh- 
bouring islands. — This group contains many idioms, 
often confined to a limited district : Sangirese, the 
languages of Minahasa (Tompahewa, Tondano, Tumbulu, 
Tonsawang, Tonsea) ; Bolang, Mongodow, Ponosakan, 
Holontalo, Mandarese and Kajeli Tomini, Pagouat, 
Luinan, Kaidipan, Bonol, Tontoli, Malasa, Tara, Barei ; 
the various Toradjas dialects, Boutonese, Laiwu ; 
Tobungku, Tomsit or Tomini, Banggaja or Peling ; and 
finally Macassar and Bugi, which are far more important 
than the others. 

In order to convey any true idea of the astonishing 
linguistic variety of the East Indies, we must not fail to 
mention, in connection with the small islands of the 
Sunda group, Balinese, Sarsak-Balinese, and Sarsak, 
spoken on Bali and Lombok ; Sumbawarese and 
Bimanese, spoken in Sumbawa ; Endele and Liou, 
the Mangerese dialects, Paga and Solarais, spoken in 
Flores ; Kupang, spoken in Timor, and Sumbanese in 
Sumba. In the Moluccas Galelarese, Tarnatese, and 
various other dialects are spoken ; and in New Guinea, 
Nafor, or Mafor and Jotofese, or the dialect of Jotafa, &C. 1 

1 For further details see H. Blink, Nederlandsch Oost-en West- 
Indie (vol. i. p. 276 et seq.). K. F. Holle has drawn up a linguistic 
chart of the Dutch Indies, reproduced in the work cited, vol. i. p. 278. 




o 
en 
o 

N 
Z 

m 

5 



>• 
z 

< 

ca 

fa 
o 

z 

> 

< 



GENERALITIES 39 

Before this incredible wealth of tongues, which 
facilitated their conquest of the Dutch East Indies in so 
far as up to the time of their arrival it had prevented the 
unification of the different peoples, but which also 
rendered their organisation more laborious, the Dutch 
felt the need of an official, administrative language, which 
should give their great empire at least a semblance of 
unity. From the time of their arrival they endeavoured 
to eradicate the Portuguese language, which had already 
spread through the Archipelago ; but they soon saw the 
futility of trying to impose Dutch. After a few unfruit- 
ful efforts they renounced the idea ; while during the 
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries they acted upon 
quite a contrary principle, taking the greatest pains to 
prevent the natives from learning their language, with 
the idea that by such a course they would increase the 
prestige of the European, the ruler ; perhaps also with a 
view to shrouding in mystery the relative weakness of 
the Netherlands, in the face of English competition. 
Malay thus became the official language of the country. 

At first sight it would seem that this dignity should rather 
fall to the Javanese language, which is spoken by more 
than twenty-four million persons ; while Malay is the 
mother-tongue of some four millions only. Javanese, 
however, is far from easy to tackle ; its grammar and 
syntax are complicated ; it contains modes of speech 
which vary as one addresses an inferior, an equal, or a 
superior ; with the result that Javanese has never over- 
passed the limits of Java, nor has it even succeeded in 
displacing Sundanese or Madurese ; while Bugi and 
Macassar, despite the commercial activity of the people 
who speak them, have never crossed the limits of their 
original sphere. The Malay language owes its election, 
on the other hand, to its extreme diffusion — a result due 
to its own qualities and that of the Malay race. 

It is not only the language of the various Malay groups 
established in Malacca, Perak, and Singapore, and 
throughout the whole Peninsula ; it is also understood 
in Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, Flores, Timor, and 



40 JAVA 

the Moluccas, and in all the southern portion of the 
Philippines ; by millions of persons, in short, all of whom 
belong to rich countries with an extensive trade. 

In French Indo-China Malay is spoken by one 
hundred thousand Malays and Shans ; it is the com- 
mercial language of the Chinese established in the com- 
mercial city of Cholu, and the Hindu merchants who 
are to be found in almost every part of the extreme 
Orient. 1 

The widespread use of this language, in comparison 
with the relatively limited number of Malays, is due to 
the simplicity, the suppleness, and the harmonious pro- 
nunciation of the Malay tongue. It has a great facility of 
assimilation, so that wherever it has been adopted it has 
acquired terms borrowed from the dialects which it has 
replaced. In this manner the conditions of its history 
have enriched it by a large number of terms from 
Sanskrit, Hindustani, Arabian, Persian, Tamil, Chinese, 
Portuguese, Dutch, and English, without speaking of its 
debts to the tongue of the Indian Archipelago, Javanese, 
Sundanese, Madurese, &c. 

We may discriminate between two kinds of Malay. 
One is the literary language, which is written in Arabic 
characters ; a refined, subtle language, full of fine shades ; 
a ceremonious, dignified language, as difficult to learn 
as any other Asiatic tongue. The other is the "low 
Malay/' "vulgar Malay," or laag-maleisch, as it is known 
in the Indies ; a language sufficing those who are dealing 
with ordinary matters, enabling them to travel every- 
where without an interpreter, and to converse intelligibly 

1 The Chinese in the various ports of the China Sea, coming from 
provinces where different dialects are spoken, or who, having left 
their country in childhood, have forgotten their mother-tongue, all 
use Malay in speaking among themselves. In Hongkong a news- 
paper in Malay has even been started for their benefit : the Pembrita 
Tjung Wa (Chinese information) intended to give them news of 
China, and also the translations of official decrees, &c, which are 
likely to interest them. In Java the Malay journals for Chinese 
readers are very numerous, and are read chiefly by merchants and 
traders. 



GENERALITIES 41 

with the natives : this may be acquired in a few months. 
It goes without saying that this language, which is more 
or less artificial, has only a remote resemblance to the 
language which is spoken among themselves by Malays 
of good education. The former is to the latter what 
French of the w savvy-voo " order is to the French of 
the Academie. But any one who wishes to acquire 
prestige among the natives or the notables cannot afford 
to dispense with correct Malay, or the knowledge of the 
slightly modified Arabian character in which it is written, 
although Europeans are gradually more and more 
inclined to transcribe the Malay literature in Latin 
characters, as are the authors of the numerous books in 
Malay which are always appearing in the Indies on all 
kinds of subjects. 

Malay is the language of the Chinese merchants, who 
hold the whole retail trade of Java in their hands. The 
prospectuses and announcements of all kinds of the 
commercial firms and navigation companies are issued 
in Malay. European products (perfumery, pharma- 
ceutical specialities, &c.) must always be provided with 
a prospectus in Malay if they are to find a place on the 
market. 

As the Dutch on their arrival found that the Malay 
language had been established throughout the Indian 
Ocean for centuries they imposed it as the official 
language upon their European officials as well as upon 
the natives. At the present time all examinations 
imposed upon colonial officials of European blood 
demand a knowledge of Malay as an obligatory subject, 
as well as a second native language, which is left to the 
choice of the candidate. The reports of the central 
authority and of the native chiefs are couched in 
Malay ; the language is taught in all the schools of the 
colony, and in order to avoid the greater difficulties of 
Javanese, many of the Javanese notables carry on their 
personal and mutual correspondence in Malay. Finally, 
thanks to the missionaries who preach in Malay, its 
diffusion is as rapid in Menado as in the Moluccas. 



42 JAVA 

In our days, since the victories of Japan and the Young 
Turkish revolution, the entire Far East seems awakening 
to a new life. It is demanding the right to come out of 
the shadows ; and the native elite, which has been formed 
by European culture, is making its voice heard in the 
Dutch East Indies. It demands, above all, two things : 
that it shall be granted facilities for learning the language 
of its masters, the better to assimilate their civilisation ; 
and that a more prominent place shall be given to the 
Javanese language, on account of its numerical import- 
ance. The Government has accordingly inscribed 
Dutch upon the programme of its principal schools 
for natives ; but as the knowledge of the language is 
rather a means for the wholly nationalistic claims of 
the natives, rather than an end in itself, it is hardly prob- 
able that it will ever become the official language of 
the Dutch East Indies. If, on the other hand, having 
regard to the importance of Java, a knowledge of Javanese 
on the part of the European officials were eventually con- 
sidered almost as necessary as that of Malay, the diffi- 
culties which it presents to the non-Javanese would long 
continue to prevent it from supplanting Malay. 

At the present time Dutch is spoken in the East 
Indies only by the colonists, among themselves and in 
their homes. Useful as the knowledge of Dutch may 
be, the traveller may perfectly well replace it by a 
knowledge of English, or preferably of French, which 
is in common use in good society. But in respect of 
the native element, or even of the foreigners — Arabs, 
Japanese, Chinese — the traveller cannot afford to dis- 
pense with a knowledge of Malay if he wishes to settle 
in the Indies, or merely to derive all possible profit 
from a journey undertaken simply for pleasure and 
instruction. 

The duration and the relatively pacific history of the 
Dutch domination in the Indies is due very largely to 
their talent for organisation. Having entered the Archi- 
pelago with one aim only, and that a practical and com- 
mercial aim, they did not allow themselves to be seduced 



GENERALITIES 43 

into the Imperialism of the Spaniards or the Portuguese, 
and never exhibited any desire to impose their own 
faith and mentality, to say nothing of an extreme sub- 
jection as well, upon the peoples of the Archipelago. 
They were too wise to arouse the fanaticism of the 
Malays and Javanese by an imprudent proselytism ; nor 
did they make the mistake of remaining indifferent in 
face of the religious ideas of less civilised peoples. All 
the native faiths were protected by them with absolute 
justice, unless they were absolutely inimical to their 
power. For a long period they kept a very keen eye 
upon the preaching of the Gospels in the Indies, in 
order to control the excessive and irritating zeal of 
certain missionaries, and avoid any religious upheaval ; 
even to-day the latter are allowed persuasion as their 
only weapon, and the authorities preserve a wholly politic 
neutrality in religious questions. 

Again, they have made no attempt to cover the whole 
of their immense possessions by the network of a facti- 
tious administrative uniformity. 

They have felt, in the midst of these many populations, 
with all their diversity, the impossibility of such an 
undertaking, and have, with very good sense, made use 
of the political institutions of the natives, whenever such 
were not too obviously hostile to their effectual domi- 
nation. Moreover, side by side with territories adminis- 
tered by themselves, they have retained a number of 
other territories having at their head a sultan or a rajah; 
these they left on their chairs of state, and beside the 
representative symbol of authority, who calms the national 
susceptibilities of the natives, they have set a European 
official, whose duty it is to watch over the nominal 
sovereign, and on occasion prompt his actions. 

Their purely economic ambition has not always, it is 
true, saved them from certain regrettable actions of 
cupidity, or tactless oppression ; the methodical devas- 
tation of the spice-trees on the Banda Islands (1621), 
and the semi-extirpation of its inhabitants, in order to 
maintain the high market value of spices by restraining 



44 JAVA 

their production, were actions hardly calculated to 
endear them to the natives ; and in the nineteenth 
century the system of forced labour, having for some 
years enriched Holland at the expense of her colonies, 
came near to bringing total ruin upon the latter, and 
alienating the loyalty of the natives. 

It is none the less true that the Netherlands, endowed 
with these magnificent possessions, where the climate is 
equable and labour abundant, have, by means of an able 
and prudent administration which has lasted more than 
three centuries, increased the wealth of their colonies 
tenfold, without either decimating or bastardising the 
native races. 

Admirably situated between the Indian Ocean and the 
China Sea, a point of union between the East and the 
Far East ; blessed with a subsoil rich in petroleum, coal, 
silver, gold, and tin ; with a soil fruitful in rice, sugar, 
coffee, tea, quinine, and indigo ; with well-equipped 
ports ; with 3,180 miles of railways and tramways (a 
figure that will shortly touch 3,490) ; with a trade which, 
in 1906, amounted, in respect of imports, to ^23,655,699 
and in respect of exports to -£25,910,803, the Dutch East 
Indies are to-day not merely one of the finest colonial 
possessions which Europe possesses in Asia, but seem 
destined to play a great part in the economical and 
political struggle for supremacy in Asia to which Europe 
and the East have been parties since the eighteenth 
century. 



CHAPTER III 

JAVA AND MADURA: PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 

I. Their shape. — II. Their geological constitution and orographical 
aspect. — III. Streams and rivers of Java and Madura; their 
qualities as alluvial agents, and their insufficiency as water- 
ways ; their influence upon the coast-line and the harbours. — 
IV. The climate : its stability. — V. The Javanese flora. — VI. 
The Javanese fauna. 

I. 

Java and its annex, Madura, are in the form of a long 
quadrilateral, the area being 50,440 square miles, of 
which the axis is, in its eastern part, slightly inclined 
towards the north. By its situation in the centre of the 
Indian Ocean, which places even Sumatra and Borneo, 
two very much larger islands, in a certain position of 
dependence ; by the richness of its soil, the abundance 
and variety of its flora and fauna, the activity, intelligence 
and civilisation of its inhabitants, and the beauty of its 
landscapes, Java remains the pearl of the Orient. 
Although in the matter of dimensions it holds only 
the fourth place, on the other hand it contains 
three-fourths of the population, and is responsible 
for four-fifths of the entire production of the Archi- 
pelago. 

Java has often been compared to its equatorial 
counterpart, Cuba, whose area, shape, and orientation 
are perceptibly like her own ; but Java, by itself, is more 
thickly populated and more wealthy than Cuba and all 
Central America together. 

45 



46 JAVA 



II. 



The long and methodical explorations of which Java 
has been the object for a space of several centuries have 
made it one of the best-known countries in the world. 
But although described by Valentyn, Marsden, Raffles, 
and Horsfield, the determination of its geological forma- 
tion in a really scientific fashion was commenced only in 
1820, or thereabouts, under the auspices of the Company 
of the Indies, and thanks to the zeal of numerous scientists 
such as Horner, Schwaner, and Macklot. In 1840 a new 
period opened, which is dominated by the celebrated 
name of Franz Junghuhn, who for many years was 
incessantly travelling through Borneo, Sumatra, and in 
particular Java, almost all of whose volcanoes he climbed 
in succession. He even died in Java, leaving behind him 
the memory of a life-work admirably performed, and the 
most valuable observations as to the geological structure 
of the East Indies. Finally, in 1880, with the advent of 
the first mining engineers, whose aim was severely prac- 
tical, a series of fresh observations was commenced, 
w r hich were at first confined more especially to Banka, 
Borneo, and Sumatra, but soon spread to Java, and 
finally furnished an exact description of the latter island. 
The most eminent name of this period is that of R. D. M. 
Verbeek, whose important geographical and topographical 
works are well known. 

Java belongs to the great Malayan curve, which starts 
from Burmah, runs down the Peninsula, traversing 
Sumatra and Java, and finally turns to the north-east, 
piercing Santal Island and Timor, and reaching New 
Guinea through Ceram. Tertiary formations play a 
great part in the geological constitution of Java, despite 
the belief that formerly obtained ; and the same is true 
of Borneo and Sumatra. More ancient formations are 
found in Java, in the shape of cretacean strata, but no 
fossils are found, excepting in Borneo, which antedate 
the tertiary period. 

The volcanoes which are still so characteristic of the 



JAVA AND MADURA 47 

Archipelago, and of Java in particular, belong to the 
quaternary period. They seem to have manifested an 
alarming activity since the dawn of the historical era — 
an activity which some retain only too fully for the 
security of the neighbouring inhabitants. Already more 
than 90 are known in Sumatra ; in Java there are more 
than 140. In these two islands the degree of volcanic 
activity is greater than anywhere else on the face of the 
earth ; while the other islands of the Sound, and, to a 
less degree, Celebes and the Moluccas, are all well pro- 
vided with volcanoes ; indeed many of them, and 
amongst others Banda, in the Moluccas, are merely the 
fragments of ancient craters. 

Java, whose southern coast-line rises almost perpen- 
dicularly from the tremendous depths of the Indian 
Ocean, sinks in far gentler slopes towards the inner seas, 
where a submarine tableland, which lies at no great 
depth, unites it with Borneo. 

The coast of Java is rich in bays and inlets ; but 
the shelter which they afford is naturally safer on the 
northern shore, which is lined by a girdle of islands — 
the Thousand Isles (Duizend-Eilanden), the Karimond- 
jawas, the Solombos, and so forth ; which are like so 
many vast bouquets of flowers and foliage cast down 
upon the threshold of this magnificent country. 

The entire backbone of the long island, so graceful 
in shape as compared with Borneo, or even with Sumatra, 
is formed by the chain of its volcanoes. Volcano upon 
volcano, from west to east, they stretch from end to end 
of Java. They stand in sequence rather than in a series ; 
there are groups of three, or it may be four together, 
enclosing between their flanks narrow and verdurous 
valleys ; or they rise in isolation, leaving between two 
summits plains of fifty or sixty miles' breadth, which are 
commonly of incomparable fertility. There are lakes 
among them here and there, but these are rare as com- 
pared with those of Sumatra. 

The most famous of these volcanoes are in the eastern 
portion of the island ; the Salak, not far from Buitenzorg, 



48 JAVA 

which is visited by numbers of tourists ; its neighbour 
the Gedei (or the Great), some 9,700 feet high, whose 
summit is crowned with hot vapours and its flanks with 
magnificent vegetation. This volcano may be seen from 
Sukabumi, and is connected with Pangerango, whose 
wooded flanks are topped by a wide terrace nearly eight 
miles in circumference. The traveller who does not fear 
the quite endurable fatigue of the ascent may behold, 
from this terrace, one of the most beautiful panoramas in 
the world : on all hands are the fertile plains and valleys 
of Java, full of a wonderful cultivation and sloping gently 
northwards down to the Javan sea, while to the west and 
south they fall to the Indian Ocean. Then follows 
Patuha, whose deep-seated activity is continually betrayed 
by audible rumblings ; Papandajan, or the Forge, the 
seat of continual uproar and eruptions of jets of steam ; 
Gunung Guntur (Mount Thunder), whose grey, bare 
mass, rising from an ocean of verdure, seems to reveal 
its deadly temper ; and Galunggung, whose eruptions are 
still more disastrous, although its aspect is less forbidding. 

After the last-named volcano the series breaks up into 
a country of plateaux of inconsiderable height, until 
the high plain of Bandung is reached, around which 
are grouped Burangrang, Tangkuban Prahu, and Tam- 
pomas. Distant and remote, in an isolation increased by 
the majesty of its wooded slopes and its ever-smoking 
crater, rises Slamat, which stands, as it were, a sentinel 
between the volcanic groups of the west and the centre of 
the island. Among the latter are Rogo Djambangan, 
Prahu, the magnificent Sindoro, Sumbing, and Merapi, 
which rise in the neighbourhood of the tableland of 
Dieng, from which the spurs of Prahu rise. To the east 
of Merapi is Gunung Sewu, or Duizendgebergte (the 
Thousand Mountains) whose valleys are so fresh and 
fertile that their ideal beauty is famous throughout the 
island. 

To the south of Surabaja the series of the eastern 
volcanoes begins with Gunung Kelut, or the Broom ; 
then comes Kawi, then Ardjuna, of the many crests ; then 




o 

o 

fa 

o 



JAVA AND MADURA 49 

Tengger, and Semaru, the highest peak in Java (12,300 
feet). In this region was established of old the famous 
Indo-Javanese kingdom of Madjapahit, which succumbed, 
at the end of the fifteenth century, or early in the six- 
teenth, to the armed proselytism of Islam ; but the 
vanquished faith held out for years on the volcanic slopes 
to which its last professors fled, and left behind it not 
only the ruins of many remarkable Hindu temples on the 
Dieng tableland, but a long-enduring memory in the 
mind of the people. 

The volcanoes, which have greatly contributed to the 
physical integrity of Java, by emitting, in the shape of 
lava, cinders, and the alluvial ooze of the many rivers, 
the material of the many islands of which it must once 
have consisted, have no less added to its beauty. Their 
majestic outlines, their mighty flanks, clad with the 
densest foliage, or, more rarely, rising stark and bare, 
crowned with clouds of burning vapour, seamed with 
a thousand streams and geysers, all multiply the vivid 
charm of the plains and valleys, rich in the bright 
vegetation of the coffee plantations or the spreading 
rice-fields. Moreover, the volcanoes, on account of their 
thermal springs, their mountain stations, and the sana- 
toria built upon their lower slopes, and, above all, on 
account of the extraordinary fertilising power of their 
ejecta, are still one of the leading elements of the 
material prosperity of Java. It is at the foot of the 
most famous volcanoes that the most flourishing crops 
are found. 

It is true that they are also at times a terrible cause 
of ruin and devastation. Although Salah has not been 
in active eruption since 1699, Papandajan, whose voice 
is still heard at a distance, broke out into an eruption 
in 1772 which swallowed up whole villages ; and 
Gunung Guntur, or Mount Thunder, has on several 
occasions destroyed more coffee plantations than it has 
fertilised. It is recorded that in 1843, during a slight 
eruption, the sun was hidden for half the day, while 
ten million tons of dust were thrown 10,000 feet into 

5 



50 JAVA 

the air; while Galunggung, in 1824, covered with a tide 
of boiling mud more than 114 villages, and thousands 
of natives ; while Lamongan and Raoun, on the shores of 
the Straits of Bali, to cite only the more notable vol- 
canoes, have shown themselves equally formidable. 
Such eruptions as those mentioned not only destroy 
villages, natives, and crops, but also make the land a 
desert for many years ; for beasts of prey howl amidst 
the ruins, and when the forests have reconquered the 
spurs of the volcano they take up their abode in them, 
thus greatly adding to the difficulties of re-establishing 
civilisation. The Gedei is subject to alternate earth- 
quakes and eruptions, and the former, the result of its 
subterranean upheavals, are perhaps more terrible than 
the latter. The last, in 1879, destroyed Sindanglaja, the 
sanatorium, and the neighbouring villages. 

The mountain system of Madura is only a subordi- 
nate continuation of that of Java. Although the island 
is generally hilly, the highest summits, such as Tam- 
buhu, do not exceed 1,200 or 1,300 feet. 

III. 

The hydrography of Java arises from the volcanic 
character of its orography ; water is abundant, but the 
streams are torrential, and their courses are determined 
by the enormous median mass of the mountains. 

Those to the south, being more closely confined 
between the volcanoes and the coast, which dips 
abruptly into a deeper ocean, are too short and too 
rapid to be easily navigable. But those of the north 
wind across the wide plains, which slope more gently to 
the coast, and empty themselves into the enclosed waters 
of the Archipelago, which, calmer and shallower than 
the Indian Ocean, are slowly completing the work of 
the volcanoes, which, having created Java by the junc- 
tion of many islands, tend incessantly yet further to 
increase its area. The detritus carried by the rivers to 
their bars or deltas, together with the overflow of lavas 



JAVA AND MADURA 51 

and ashes, and the reefs of coral which emerge at every 
eruption, increase the area of the island imperceptibly 
but continuously, diminishing the bays, transforming the 
islands into peninsulas, but silting up the mouths of the 
rivers and the best harbours on the coast. 

These rivers, which in Javanese bear the name of kali, 
and in Sundanese that of tji or tchyi, had to be greatly 
improved by dredging, embanking, &c, before they 
were of any use for navigation. Naturally enough, this 
work was commenced in the neighbourhood of Batavia, 
where the Dutch had first established themselves ; and 
the many narrow water-ways of the province and city 
of Batavia were the first to be rendered navigable. But 
we must look to the eastern portion of the island to find 
a river really worthy of the name : the Kali Solo, brim- 
ming with the waters which descend from Merapi and 
Merbahu, and navigable by boats of considerable size 
over its entire length of 310 miles. Its magnificent 
estuary would be accessible to large ocean-going vessels 
were it not obstructed by gigantic sand-banks. 

The same drawback affects the other large water-way 
of the northern slope of Java, the Kali Brantas, which 
debouches to the south of the Strait of Madura. It is 
wide, with an abundant flow of water, but so impeded 
by mud and sand that no large vessels can make use 
of it. 

The rivers of the southern slope would be even less 
navigable than those of the north, had not the Dutch 
undertaken works of canalisation — to such effect that 
the wide estuary of the Tji (or Kali) Tanduwi, or Tanduj, 
is open even to steamboats. But will it permit of their 
entry much longer ? Scarcely, without human interven- 
tion; for it is filling, day by day, with its alluvial wealth, 
the large gulf known as Segara Anakan, the Sea of Chil- 
dren or Kindzee ; and little by little its muddy deposits 
are annexing the island of Kembangan, once far from 
the coast, but now connected with the mainland. 

The shores of Java suffer from the same trouble ; full 
of wide bays or inlets, especially on the northern side, 



52 JAVA 

the double action of volcano and river is daily tending 
to fill their depths ; in the course of time they disappear, 
while new bays and inlets are formed by the annexation 
of coastwise islands by the incessant outward movement 
of the shoals. Hence the shores of Java are only too 
often bordered by long stretches of muddy shoals — 
lagoons whose treacherous islands, covered with rank 
foliage, are noisome with swamp miasma, and the breed- 
ing-ground of deadly fevers, 

IV 6 

The climate — or, we might say, the climates of Java, 
for it varies according to the height and aspect of what- 
ever part of the island we consider — is like all tropical 
climates. It is at once moist and hot ; for Java lies in 
the zone of the trade winds, the belt of alternate mon- 
soons. One, the " good monsoon," or the dry season, 
lasts from June to September ; the other, the " bad mon- 
soon," or the rainy season, lasts from December to 
March. The best time for the traveller to land in Java 
is the month of April or May. 

The chief peculiarity of the climate of the Indies, and 
of Java in especial, is the equability of the temperature 
all the year round. In Batavia the thermometer marks 
an average of 79*5° from June to October, or the period 
known as the hot season, but during the cold season, 
or in January and February, it very rarely falls below 
77-40.1 

It is far less damp in Java than in Sumatra ; but it is 
damper in the western than in the eastern portion of the 
island, whence the vegetation in the former is infinitely 

1 In Batavia the highest average temperature is recorded in 
September — 79*45° — and October — 79-66°. The average for the whole 
year is 78*8°. The absolute maximum recorded was reached on 
the 6th of November, 1877, at one o'clock in the afternoon — 96 i°; 
the absolute minimum on the 9th of August, 1877, at six in the 
evening — 66°. (Observations made between 1866 and 1900, cited 
by Blink, Ned. Oost-en West-Indie) vol. i. pp. 127, 132.) 



JAVA AND MADURA 53 

more luxurious than in the latter. As the islands of the 
Archipelaga approach Australia their climate becomes 
always drier and their vegetation less exuberant than in 
the neighbourhood of the peninsula and India. 

The range of temperatures, already small in Batavia 
and the western plains, becomes still smaller in the 
interior, and is noticeable only on the heights, where 
the rains are of almost daily occurrence and the thunder- 
storms of tremendous violence and extraordinary fre- 
quency. There, or at least in certain localities, the 
thermometer rarely rises above 8o'6° in the daytime, 
while at night it ranges between 57*2° and 6o'8° — a 
climate which puts life into those depressed by the 
anaemia of Batavia and the large towns of the coast, and 
which, helped out by the beauty of the surrounding 
landscape and a little, perhaps, by comparison, is 
qualified as delicious. Such a climate is found in Suka- 
bumi, Bandung, and Garut in the west, and in Malang 
in the east. It is this climate which has led the Dutch 
Government to establish a number of sanatoria at Suka- 
bumi, Sindanglaja, and Tegal-laga, near Bandung, in the 
Preangers ; at Pelantungan, in the neighbourhood of 
Samarang ; at Tosari and Puspa, in the residency of 
Pasuruan. These establishments, the like of which are 
sadly lacking in French Indo-China, allow the colonists 
and officials suffering from dysentery, liver complaints, 
fevers, &c, to recruit themselves. One of them, that of 
Tosari, is the only spot on the island which is absolutely 
free from malaria. 



V. 

The splendour of the Javanese vegetation has been 
celebrated for centuries and in many strains. Thanks to 
the situation of the island beneath the Equator, which 
ensures the privilege of perpetual summer and unfailing 
rains ; thanks to its high mountains, which break the 
winds, condense the clouds into moisture, and, having 
fertilised the soil with their lavas, refresh it with life- 



54 JAVA 

giving waters, the flora of Java is as rich as it is varied. 
It may be seen under many aspects, accordingly as one 
explores the shores, the plains, the first slopes of the 
mountains, or their heights. Along the coast grows the 
dwarf-palm, or Nipa fruticans (Wurmb.), whose leaves 
(atap) serve to thatch the huts of the natives ; the beautiful 
Maripa palm (Attalea maripa Mart.), the cycadeus, and 
the pandanus. In the plains and the foothills of the 
ranges, side by side with the carefully cultivated food- 
crops, which the labour of man obtains from or imposes 
on the soil, and of which there are many not native to 
the Indies : side by side with the fields of rice, the planta- 
tions of coffee, quinine, cinnamon, cotton, sugar-cane, 
pepper, tobacco, vanilla, and tea, grow the pisang, or 
banana-tree, the coco-palm, the aren or sugar-palm, 1 
the fan-palm, the lontar, or Borassus flabelliformis L., a 
cousin of the date-palm, and the rattan (Malay, rotan), 
or climbing palm ; in short, all the family of palms — 
wonderful not so much by reason of the number of 
their varieties, which barely exceeds three hundred, as 
on account of their grace and the charm which they add 
to the landscape, and, above all, the many ways in which 
they are of service to the natives. The most useful are 
the sago-palm (the Malay Pohon sagu = Metroxylon sagus 
Roxb.), with its nourishing pith, the sugar-palm, and the 
toddy-palm, 2 known by the name of their precious gifts. 
Besides the palms we must mention the bamboo, a plant 
so necessary that we cannot imagine the life of the 
inhabitant of the Far East without the constant assist- 
ance of the bamboo, which is put to a hundred uses ; 
and the great figs, or banyans, of which one variety — the 
Ficus benjaminea L. (Malay, beringin, beraksa ; Javanese, 
waringin) — puts forth such a multitude of hanging roots 
from its trunk and branches that one individual tree will 

1 The Javanese name for the Arenga saccharifera Lab., the sap of 
which produces the aren sugar, so appreciated by the Javanese. 

2 Palm wine and palm sugar are furnished by the following 
species : Arenga saccharifera, Borassus flabelliformis, Cocos nucifera, 
Nipa fruticans, &c. 



JAVA AND MADURA 55 

constitute a whole grove by itself, so large is the space 
which it covers and shelters ; the Altingia excelsa, which 
produces the resin known as liquid amber (in Malay, 
getah rasamala) which is used in medicine, and grows 
sometimes to a height of 160 feet ; enormous tree-ferns ; 
myriads of lianas, so long, strong, and supple that the 
natives often throw them across rivers or ravines to 
serve as bridges, while the trees caught in their embrace 
quickly die of strangulation. 

On the slopes of the mountains, at a greater altitude 
and in a lower temperature, the traveller will be surprised 
to see, in juxtaposition with the wonderful products of 
the tropical flora,, a large number of trees which are 
known to our temperate climate. The king of the 
Javanese forest, the Tectona grandis L., the djati, jati, or 
teak, whose close and almost impenetrable grain makes 
it of the greatest value in shipbuilding, may be seen 
growing next to the oak, the maple, the lime, the ilex, 
the chestnut, and the pine. Above the height of 6,500 feet 
these are replaced by thickets which grow sparser and 
greyer as the belt of heat without moisture is reached, 
but after the rainy season one may find on the flanks of 
the volcano the violets and buttercups of the West. But 
one also finds venomous plants unknown to Europe ; 
among others the antjar, or Antiaris toxicaria, of Sesche- 
nault, and the famous upas, whose mortal effects have 
been celebrated by the poets. Even in the briefest 
sketch of the flora of Java one must mention the graceful 
nepenthes and the gay begonias, which have long since 
been acclimatised under English skies. 

VI 

The fauna of Java is even richer than those of Sumatra 
and Borneo, with the easily appreciated difference that it 
is less formidable to man. Java can boast neither of the 
elephant, nor the tapir, nor the orang-outang, but it still 
contains a certain number of rhinoceros, black and 
spotted leopards, and — especially in the centre of the 



56 JAVA 

island — there are tigers, whose ravages are still consider- 
able. Lightning and the tigers are the two greatest 
terrors of the Javanese ; he speaks of them only with 
fearful respect ; their victims amount to hundreds each 
year : yet the natives abstain from any systematic cam- 
paign against the tigers, despite the terror which they 
inspire, because the destruction of the tigers results, in ;■ 
their experience, in the advent of herds of wild pigs, * 
which ruin the crops. The great wild bull, or banteng 
(Bos sondiacitSy M. and Schleg.), is still found in Java ; 
there are no less than four varieties of pig, immense 
herds of deer and of antelopes, and the wonderful East 
Indian fawn, the dwarf deer, or mouse deer, the most 
graceful little creature on the face of the earth. Among 
the domestic animals we must mention the buffalo, or 
kerbau, the bullock (sapi), the pig (babi), the goat 
(kambing), which is found in the most miserable kam- 
pongs (villages), the sheep, the dog, and the cat. 

The birds of Java, many of which are clad in the most 
brilliant plumage, do not number more than 270 species, 
of which forty are peculiar to the island. Ducks, and the 
wild cock, peacocks, pigeons, and pheasants abound, not 
to speak of the kingfishers, parakeets, ant-eaters, and 
birds of paradise. The peacock is the object of a certain 
amount of aversion, because the natives believe that a 
troop of peacocks reveals the approach of the tiger, 
whom they follow in his hunting. 1 

The dugong and the cachalot are often seen along the 
coast ; crocodiles also are common, and the rich vegeta- 
tion of Java conceals a great variety of snakes, many of 
which are far more dangerous to man than the dreaded 
tiger. 

The aquatic fauna, whether marine or otherwise, is 
extremely rich, and for the native is an important source 
of food and prosperity, as we shall see when we come to 
study the native's life. 

1 It is supposed by the Javanese that the peacock eats the 
intestinal worms of the tiger's victims. 










o 



CHAPTER IV 

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS OF JAVA 

I. The seventeen Residencies. — The western Residencies : Bantam, 
Batavia, Cheribon, the Preangers. — II. The central Residencies : 
Pekalongan, Samarang, Banjumas, Kedu. — III. Kedu and Boro- 
Budur. — IV. The Vorstenlanden, or Principalities, Surakarta and 
Djokjakarta. — V. Rembang, Madiun. — VI. The Residencies of 
the East : Surabaja, Kediri, Pasuruan, Besuki, and Madura. 



I. 

The immense area of Java and Madura was, until 1900, 
divided into twenty-two Residencies or Provinces, which 
have since been reduced to seventeen ; partly as a 
measure of centralisation, but still more as a matter of 
administrative economy. Two of these, in the centre of 
Java, have retained an apparent independence ; one 
under a Susuhunan, 1 and the other under a Sultan. 
These are known as the Vorstenlanden, or Principalities : 
Surakarta and Djokjakarta. 

The first Residency in Java, starting from the western 
extremity of the island, is that of Bantam ; which, 
after having been the most flourishing of all, is 
to-day perhaps the poorest. Bantam, the capital of 
the old Sultanate of Bantam, was indeed the centre 
of the Dutch power until the foundation of Batavia, 
being better situated, at the crossing of the mari- 
time highways, and having a better protected road- 

x Or, being abridged, sunan. A title which, in ancient Javanese, 
more or less precisely signifies "his Holiness "; it used to be given 
only to princes who united in their hands both the spiritual and the 
temporal powers. 

5? 



58 JAVA 

stead. Bantam, for nearly fifty years, was the great 
European port ; to-day it is only a poor native town, 
living by a small trade in fruits and agricultural pro- 
ducts with Batavia, and, on the other side of the strait, 
with its Sumatrese neighbours of the Lampong country. 
Of the strangers who visit the city many, if they are 
Malays or Mahomedan Chinese, go there out of venera- 
tion for the ruins of the ancient mosque, and the tombs 
of the Imams ; while the Europeans bestow a glance on 
the ruins of the seventeenth-century factories, or the 
memorials of the first pioneers of European civilisation, 
who sleep in a cemetery as green as a garden. For a few 
years Anjer succeeded Bantam as the centre of the Dutch 
trade and life ; in 1883 it was devastated by the so-called 
tidal wave which followed the eruption of Krakatoa, and 
was unable to recover. Even the seat of the Residency 
was moved to Tjilegon, and the supremacy of Bantam 
passed to the neighbouring province. 

This was only reasonable ; for the Residency of Bantam 
contains only 850,000 inhabitants, while that of Batavia 
counts nearly 2J millions. Batavia — and the city seems 
to be gradually absorbing the province — is still, despite 
the efforts of Surabaja and Samarang, the capital of 
Java, of the whole Dutch East Indies, the essentially 
European city. It owes less to its climate, which, owing 
to the low altitude, is only too often stiflingly hot, or 
to the beauty of its landscapes, which must be sought at 
Buitenzorg, some twenty miles inland, and which are 
inferior to those of the Preangers, than to the plexus 
of human lives which it has somehow gathered about it ; 
the picturesqueness of its old quarters ; the gay splendour 
of the new city, and its background of more than a 
century of European civilisation. 

Batavia is no upstart ; it has its aristocratic quarters, 
its old traditions, which date back to the year 1619, when 
the Dutch built the city upon the site of the native 
Djakatra. To-day it spreads out for a distance of twelve 
miles ; and if its extent seems out of proportion to its 
population, which in 1909 was 138,000, we must not 



ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 59 

forget that Batavia, besides the old city, contains the new 
city with its wealthy quarter of Weltevreden (Well Con- 
tent), and also Tandjong Priok, which is the shipping 
quarter of Batavia, To be logical, we ought really to 
include Meester Cornelis (33,990 inhabitants, of whom 
1,700 are Europeans), Buitenzorg (Sans-souci, 33,400 
inhabitants), the seat of the Government, Tanggerang 
(4,454 inhabitants), and even Bekasi, with its bustling 
Chinese bazaars and charming country villas. The 
centre of this complex organism is old Batavia, built 
upon the right bank of the Tji Liwong : showing, at the 
entrance of the channel, the four bastions of the citadel, 
which is situated upon a small island. Nature has over- 
come these defences more easily than man ; for, following 
upon a series of volcanic eruptions, the canals of Batavia 
were choked with ashes, while the alluvial deposits of the 
river slowly separated the city from the sea, until to-day 
they are parted by a distance of nearly two miles. The 
stagnation of the water in the canals, and the proximity 
of a coast-line which was always in process of formation 
and always half a swamp, continued to make old Batavia 
so unhealthy that the colonists decided to abandon their 
houses : those eighteenth-century red-brick gabled houses 
which were like a corner of Holland amidst the exotic 
foliage ; tourists still visit the quarter to admire them, but 
they are occupied now only as offices, or by Chinese or 
natives, whose kampongs are huddled together in the most 
picturesque but evil-smelling medley, amidst the old 
decaying houses ; close to the mangroves of the shifting 
shore-line, a constant breeding-place of dangerous fevers. 

The Dutch, in their greater wisdom, have removed 
their port to Tandjong Priok, some six and a quarter 
miles beyond the old city, and their dwelling-houses to 
Weltevreden, which is a mile or two south of the old 
Batavia, standing upon a slight eminence which preserves 
it from the marshy miasmata, and allows the residents 
occasionally to enjoy the sea-breeze. 

Tandjong Priok is situated on the great bay of Batavia, 
which lies between Cape Untung Djawa and Krawang 



60 JAVA 

Point. The harbour is accessible to vessels of the 
highest tonnage. The roadstead has a length of twenty- 
four miles and a width of eight ; the harbour proper is 
at the mouth of the Tji Liwong. The outer harbour 
is enclosed between two gigantic jetties of hewn stone, 
25 feet in width at the top : it is 2,000 yards wide, and 
the opening has a width of 136 feet. The inner basin, 
which is surrounded by quays for trading-vessels, has a 
length of 1,210 yards, a width of 190 yards, and a depth of 
25 feet. 

The quay itself, which is 8 ft. 2 in. above low water, 
extends for a distance of 1,100 yards. The harbour 
contains a dry dock, graving and careening slips, a coaling 
station, building slips ; all the equipment, in short, of 
a modern port. A good road, a canal, and a railway 
unite it with Batavia. The cost of the harbour was 
26J million florins — about £3,000,000 ; and it is the site 
of a considerable trade in coffee, sugar, indigo, quinine, 
and copra, which it exports, receiving in return an 
enormous quantity of manufactured articles, particularly 
from Holland, England, and Germany, 

Tandjong Priok represents the wealth and activity 
of Batavia. Weltevreden, the new city, is the symbol 
of its luxury, with its vast, sumptuous avenues, its 
magnificent gardens, which give the whole quarter the 
aspect of a wonderful park, with a sprinkling of houses 
whose simple, almost rustic architecture, adds yet another 
charm to all this natural beauty. One scarcely notices 
them at first on passing through the splendid avenues,' 
so well are they concealed by the exuberant tropical 
vegetation. 

The centre of the city is Koningsplein, an immense 
rectangular space twice as large as the Champ de Mars 
in Paris. Here towards nine o'clock each evening the 
Dutch ladies and a few handsome half-castes take the 
air ; sometimes on foot, but more often driving ; wear- 
ing their most fashionable frocks, but nearly always bare- 
headed ; a custom by which beauty gains if European 
etiquette suffers. This graceful fashion, thanks to the 



ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 61 

influence of snobbery, shows signs of disappearing. The 
four sides of the Koningsplein are bordered by the 
wealthier private houses, standing behind groups of trees ; 
here, too, is the huge and somewhat heavy palace of the 
Governor-General, and the archaeological and ethno- 
graphical museum of the Society of Arts and Sciences 
of Batavia, which was founded in 1778, and whose 
publications x are a mine of precious information con- 
cerning the East Indies. 

The Koningsplein is connected by Willemslaan to the 
Waterlooplein, which seems small in comparison with 
the former, although it would still seem immense in 
Europe ; but it is as green and enchanting as the larger 
place, although somewhat unfortunately marred by a 
rather miserable monument in memory of Waterloo, a 
statue of Jan Coen, the founder of Batavia in 1619, and 
an iron pyramid to the memory of the brave General 
Michiels : none of which can be regarded as an artistic 
success. The Waterlooplein is overlooked by the palace 
of the Colonial Office (Colonial Services) and the grace- 
ful Catholic cathedral. 

The sight of the entire city, outspread in the midst of 
its wonderful gardens, has none of that utilitarian ugli- 
ness with which the agglomeration of second-rate build- 
ings and an over-driven existence deface our modern 
European cities. In the remote background, at a 
respectful distance, and hidden by their enclosures of 
cabbage and coco-palms, are the kampongs of the natives, 
which are drawn like a motley girdle round stately 
Weltevreden, which pushes its villas in brick and wood 
on the one hand along the canal which runs from that 
quarter to old Batavia, while on the other hand the 
villas reach as far as the overgrown village of Meester 
Cornelis (33,900 inhabitants), an entertaining mixture of 
European bungalows, the houses of wealthy Chinese, 
and dirty native quarters, swarming with life and colour. 

One cannot speak of Batavia without the immediate 

1 Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen : Verhande- 
lingen, Tijdschrift, Notulen. 



62 JAVA 

thought of Buitenzorg, which prides itself upon being 
the motive centre, the brain almost, of Batavia. It 
stands twenty miles from the capital, on a site which is 
infinitely more healthy and more beautiful ; a leafy hill 
of 870 feet in height, which overlooks the valley of the 
Tji Liwong and the Tji Dani, while beyond it are incom- 
parable views of Gedei and Salak, the two great volcanoes. 
Buitenzorg, known in Javanese as Bogor, boasts of a 
botanical garden unique in the world ; to speak precisely 
it is rather a botanical institute, as the most perfectly 
equipped laboratories are combined with the most 
wonderful collection of tropical plants that any naturalist 
could dream of, enclosed in a frame to delight the heart 
of a painter or poet. In this peculiarly moist, warm 
climate — for at Buitenzorg it rains every day from two 
to seven in the afternoon — the vegetation shows an 
extraordinary development and variety. More than ten 
thousand species of plants are here assembled : coco- 
palms, cabbage-palms, palms of all varieties, eucalyptus and 
the red jasmine, all intermingled with a grace and vigour 
peculiar to the place, for on this favoured soil they attain 
an unexampled development, particularly as to height. 
The Botanical Garden of Buitenzorg has evaded both 
the deliberate disorder of a virgin forest, in which the 
tangled exuberance of vegetation produces a disconcert- 
ing impression of discomfort, and the too strictly formal 
order of the classical botanical garden ; Art has helped 
Nature with a loving tact, and the rarest species grow in 
a happy liberty, blending in the most harmonious 
manner with one another and with the distant back- 
ground of a perfect landscape. 1 

A visit to the Botanical Garden of Buitenzorg is as great 
a pleasure to the mere traveller as to the scientist, although 
perhaps for different reasons ; but the gardens are not 
the only attraction which the Europeans of Java find in 

x There is an excellent Notice sur Vetat actuel de VInstitut by its 
one-time Director, Dr. Treub, in s y Lands Plantentuin, Bulletin de 
VInstitut botanique de Buitenzorg, No. 1. (Buitenzorg, printed at 
the Institute, 1898, 8vo.) 



ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 63 

this charming town. It is at Buitenzorg, in a palace 
surrounded with flowers, lawns, and groups of trees, 
such as might be the envy of any royal residence in 
Europe, that the Governor-General of the Dutch East 
Indies resides, the representative of the executive power 
in the colony. Since 1774 the Governors have been 
used to seek a refreshing air and a little repose in this 
well-named hill-station— Buitenzorg, the Care-free, Sans- 
Souci ; there they built a country villa, and finally 
appreciated the place so well that they transported 
thither the entire Secretariat-General ; and since then 
the eyes of all the officials in Java have been turned 
towards Buitenzorg, the source of all executive orders, 
and also of promotion. The Europeans of the Archi- 
pelago, whether merchants or planters, learned in their 
turn of the reviving effects of Buitenzorg ; and while the 
Government established a hospital there for those con- 
valescent from beri-beri, they flocked there every year for 
a stay of several months, so that in spite of its entirely 
official character the town is full of visitors coming and 
going. 

Puwokarta, and Krawang, the old Cravaon of the 
Portuguese, formerly itself the capital of a suppressed 
Residency of the same name (connected by rail with 
Meester Cornelis and Batavia, but without gaining much 
thereby), are the only two district capitals worth mention- 
ing in the province of Batavia. 

The Residency or province of Cheribon or Tjiribon 
contains some large villages and markets, but no city 
worthy of remark by reason either of its population or 
activity, excepting the capital of the same name. The 
city of Cheribon (23,450 inhabitants) on the Tji-Ribon, 
or river of crayfish, to which it owes its name, is a 
picturesque old town, in which the European, Chinese, 
Arab, and Javanese quarters strike each its characteristic 
note. It might, on this muddy, indefinite sea-coast, 
have become a port of some importance, had not the 
coral reefs rendered its roadstead unsafe. It is, how- 
ever, a place of pilgrimage for many fervent Arab, 



64 JAVA 

Malay, or Javanese Mahomedans, who go thither to 
venerate the tomb of the Susuhunan Gunang Djati, 
the founder of Cheribon, and one of the great propa- 
gandists of Islam in Java. His remote descendants 
live not far from this holy but somewhat dilapidated 
object, in a kraton (palace) full of a rather tawdry 
luxury, subsisting on a very comfortable pension paid 
them by the Dutch Government. 

The Residency of the Preangers, which is to the south 
of Bantam, Batavia, and Cheribon, and with them consti- 
tutes the eastern division of Java, surpasses them all in 
extent, population, and natural beauty. It contains no 
less than 8,178 square miles, and 2,435,500 inhabitants, 
of whom some 4,000 are Europeans. There are few 
large towns excepting Bandung, the capital, but a host 
of kampongs : great overgrown villages, built amid the 
most luxuriant vegetation, on the most incomparable 
sites. Enthusiastic travellers, struck by the marvellous 
light and the fresh green of the Javanese foliage, have 
called the fortunate island a terrestrial paradise. If it be 
so, then the Preangers should be the paradise of this 
paradise. Here too — a fact not to be disdained — are 
the finest plantations of coffee, tea, quinine, and sugar- 
cane to be found in the East Indies. If only this 
province did not face the Indian Ocean, which forms 
the whole of its southern boundary, it is probable that 
the productive value of the Preangers would be doubled ; 
but the depth of the water makes the construction of 
harbours or artificial roadsteads impossible. 

Bandung, which since 1864 has been the capital of 
the province, is a very pleasant town, nestling amidst 
its trees, at a height of 2,300 feet above the sea. It 
grows, so to speak, while one watches it, but without 
losing any of its beauty. In 1893 it contained only 
23,800 inhabitants ; to-day there are 47,470, of whom 
2,200 are Europeans. 

Garut and Sukabumi, connected with Bandung by the 
railway, are, from the European point of view, simply 
sanatoria, installed in the midst of Javanese native life, 




I 



< 






ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 65 

in a delightful climate. Sukabumi (Place of Delights) 
has over 15,000 inhabitants, but only 588 are Europeans, 
exclusive of the convalescents whom the State sends up 
year by year to the establishment built for that end. 
The Dutch Government has installed two other sanatoria 
in the Residency of Preanger : one at Tegal-laga, near 
Bandung, and one at Sindanglaja. 

Formerly many East Indian officials, having retired 
upon their pensions, came to end their lives under the 
trees of Sukabumi ; to-day they return more willingly 
to die in their native country. 

Garut, at a height of 2,300 feet, more sparsely peopled 
than Sukabumi, is almost as attractive, by reason of its 
climate and its individual charm. Formerly a holy city, 
forbidden to Europeans, it is now more and more 
frequented by foreigners. 

II. 

Central Java comprises the Residencies of Pekalongan, 
Samarang, Banjumas, Kedu, Djokjakarta and Surakarta, 
Rembang, and Madiun. The first two Residencies are 
situated on the Java Sea, and absorb the commercial 
products of the other four on their way to the outer 
world. 

The province of Pekalongan, despite its three small 
ports — Brebes, Tegal, and Pemalang (20,920 inhabitants) 
— contains only one important town : the capital, Peka- 
longan (41,720 inhabitants), which is built upon both 
banks of the River Pekalongan. The houses of the 
European quarter are built on the left bank, along an 
avenue of magnificent canary-trees and tamarinds. This 
quarter, which is well away from the native and Chinese 
quarters, boasts of the inevitable " plein," place, or 
promenade, with its administrative offices, the Residency, 
and the Protestant Church ; and not far off is the 
customary aloun-alonn, 1 - with the mosque and the 

1 The aloun-aloun is the public place, the centre of official 
native life, just as the "plein" is the centre of European life. It 

6 



66 JAVA 

Regent's palace. The Chinese, even more than the 
Arabs, hold in their hands the greater part of the 
retail trade of the neighbourhood, and indeed of the 
whole coast ; at Tegal they even profess to have 
been established since the tenth century. 

The Residency of Samarang far surpasses that of Peka- 
longan by the number of its towns and their activity and 
density of population. Kudus, Salatiga, Kendal, Japara, 
and Pati all contain from ten thousand to thirty thousand 
inhabitants. Samarang, the capital (96,660 inhabitants, 
of whom 5,126 are Europeans), is one of the three 
great commercial centres of the island, ranking with 
Batavia and Surabaja. The city has developed rapidly 
since the proclamation of free labour, and has become 
one of the great depots of the products of the country : 
coffee, tobacco, indigo, sugar, and rice. 

Another cause of prosperity has been the construction 
of railways running from the coast to the Principalities, 
or Vorstenlanden, of Djokjakarta and Surakarta, which 
has enabled Samarang to attract nearly all the trade of 
Central Java. The improvement of the port has made it 
more accessible, although it does not make up for the 
absence of a safe and capacious roadstead, which would 
be worth a large fortune to the city. The city itself is 
built on the two banks and at the mouth of the insignifi- 
cant river of the same name ; its only interest lies in the 
continual movements of the lighters towards the ships, 
and the magnificent sunshine which never fails the East 
Indian landscape. The old city, built, by a natural and 
pathetic fallacy, in the Dutch manner — its two-story 
houses crowded together in the narrow streets, without 
the ventilation of large gardens — is so insupportably hot 
that all who have been able to desert it have done so ; 
it is used now only for stores and warehouses, and, in 
the more habitable quarters, for barracks and orphan 
asylums. The Europeans have taken refuge on the road 

is almost always a great grassy square or oblong, planted with 
enormous banyans, which trees are greatly venerated by the 
Hindus and the Javanese. 



ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 67 

to Bondjong and Pontjol (two quarters of the new city), 
which stand a little higher than the surrounding plain. 
There they have built their white villas, shaded by tall 
trees. A magnificent avenue of tamarind-trees connects 
Bondjong with the aloun-aloun, the central public square 
of every native town, where the Government offices, the 
Residency, the town hall, indeed all the official buildings, 
are grouped about its green expanse. More interesting 
still to the traveller is the Chinese quarter, which is built 
upon the Samarang River, a little way above the city, and 
is almost as picturesque as it is dirty ; or the houses of 
the Javanese kampong, scattered among the coco-palms, 
or along the roads, or on the banks of the canal, accord- 
ing to the occupations of the inhabitants. At a quarter 
of an hour's distance, to the south of Samarang, and on 
the first slopes of the mountain, is the suburb of Tjandi, 
which is rich in the ruins of Hindu temples, to which 
the natives still bring their humble offerings of flowers 
and fruits. Not far from here the Europeans are begin- 
ning to build, as it is cooler than in Samarang itself. 
Well provided with roads, canals, railways, steam tram- 
ways, and steamship lines, active and enterprising, 
Samarang is wealthy rather than attractive. 

Its opulent aspect is a contrast to the semi-poverty 
of its neighbour Demak, formerly the capital of a 
powerful State, and not long ago the capital of a Resi- 
dency which is now simply a district of the Residency 
of Samarang. Situated in a cool and luxuriant valley, 
Demak has to-day only 5,250 inhabitants ; despite the 
line of steam trams which connects it with Samarang 
and Joana, 1 it vegetates miserably. Yet here, in the 
fifteenth or sixteenth century, was founded a dynasty 
of Musulman princes, fervent propagandists of Islam, 
whose turbulent proselytism made them for a time the 
moral rulers of Central Java. One of them — a very holy 
but also a very ambitious man — Raden Patah, built, it 

1 Or rather Djoewana. Joana is an English spelling, often used 
by preference, as in the expression Samarang-Joana-Stoomtram = 
Samarang and Joana Steam Tramway. 



68 JAVA 

is said, the city mosque, which is celebrated throughout 
Java, and was completed in 1468. In 1845 ^ had to be 
rebuilt ; but care was taken to preserve in the new 
structure some sculptured columns, venerable relics of 
the old. From Demak issued, in the latter half of the 
fifteenth century, the religious and political movement 
which banded together the petty Musulman princes of 
the north coast of Java for the purpose of annihilating 
the great Indo-Javanese kingdom of Madjapahit. At 
their head, justly enough, was Raden Patah, son or 
grandson, so it was said, of the Sultan of Madjapahit, 
who wished at one blow to avenge an injury done to 
his mother and to secure the triumph of Islam. He 
succeeded : the Arab supplanted the Hindu civilisa- 
tion throughout the island ; but two centuries later the 
Dutch laid hands upon the warlike petty princes and 
their territory. Further decimated in 1848 by a terrible 
famine, Demak lingers rather than lives. 

Kudus, better advised, has preserved, with a religious 
respect, the minaret of its ancient mosque, and the 
famous tomb of its eminently holy founder, the Pan- 
geran Kudus. 1 But it has not allowed its material 
interests to suffer ; it has left the ancient city to the 
memories of its historic past, and has built beside it a 
new city, which is completely modern, although purely 
in the native style. The wooden dwellings are neater, 
cleaner, and more graceful than in any other part of 
the island ; their facades, delicately carved, are famous 
through all Java. It is to this charming town that the 
inhabitants of Kudus, energetic brokers and carriers of 
produce, return after scouring the country from one 
end to another, sometimes for years together, in order 
to take their well-earned rest and enjoy the fruits of 
their labour. 

Salatiga contains an almost equally industrious popu- 
lation, and enjoys a delightful climate, which has led 
to the erection of a sanatorium. 

Ambarawa, in a steep, marshy valley of the volcanQ 
1 Pangeran = I^ord or Prince. 




GRIMM S RESTAURANT, SURABAJA. 




THE OLD SIMPAXG CLUB, SURABAJA. 



To face p. 



ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 69 

Merbabu, is merely a fortress, originally intended to 
bridle the Sultans of Surakarta and Djokjakarta, and 
to prevent their making raids upon the Dutch posses- 
sions on the coast. It is, above all, an example of 
Dutch tenacity, its utility to-day being practically nil. 
Commenced about 1837, it was built of human lives, 
for the builders had to fight three enemies : the marsh 
fever; the treacherous, muddy water, which would sud- 
denly sweep away work and workers; and finally an 
eruption of Merbabu, which in July, 1867, when the 
work was apparently completed, cracked or destroyed 
the whole structure. Worse still : at the end of nume- 
rous periods of forced labour, to which the unhappy 
inhabitants of the country had been compelled, a terrible 
famine broke out, as the peasants had been unable to 
sow and to cultivate their rice-fields. Ambarawa, created 
by the will of the metropolis, according to the plans of 
the metropolis, in obedience also to its remote brutality, 
was one of the last great moral mistakes of the Dutch. 
It would always have been quite insufficient to stand 
against good artillery ; and although it instilled a salu- 
tary terror in the hearts of the neighbouring populations, 
it also left them with a dangerous sense of unforgiving 
resentment. 

The Residency of Banjumas, to the south of that of 
Samarang, is important on account of its situation rather 
than its economic importance. It is of value in that it 
helps to divide the formerly formidable Principalities from 
the turbulent Residency of the Preangers. Banjumas, 
its capital, in spite of its rather high-flown name (Golden 
Water), is a second-rate village of 5,795 inhabitants. 
The principal towns of the district are : Purwakerto 
(13,768 inhabitants), Probolinggo (13,237), and Band- 
jernagara (5,875), which are scarcely more lively. 

The only exception is Tjilatjap, the great commercial 
and military port of the south. Tjilatjap is built in 
modern fashion, and is laid out in a very symmetrical 
manner, with huge, shady avenues — almost too huge, 
in fact, for the city scarcely seems likely to realise the 



70 JAVA 

hopes that were conceived of it, and this for two reasons : 
both the climate and the nature of the soil, which are 
closely connected, are unfavourable. It is built upon 
a dried-up swamp, beside a muddy coast which bristles 
with coral ; it is extremely unhealthy during the western 
monsoon, being then invaded by the poisonous exhala- 
tions of the shore ; the south-western monsoon, which 
brings the sea-breeze, renders it somewhat more healthy. 

The malaria endemic in Tjilatjap has the peculiarity 
that its worst effects are felt only after leaving the place ; 
it undermines the constitution of the resident, but he is 
hardly aware of his condition. It is, nevertheless, so 
deadly a complaint that Tjilatjap has been called "the 
European cemetery/' and the Government has been 
forced to withdraw its garrisons. 

The roadstead, which is very extensive, and capable of 
floating large vessels at low tide, is protected by a natural 
breakwater of coral ; but the entrance is difficult, bristling 
with reefs, and is gradually becoming obstructed by the 
alluvium of the Tjilatjap, the estuary of which it faces. 
The muddy waters of the river are already slowly filling 
the great Gulf of Segara Anakan, or the Sea of the 
Children, and their deposits of slime and ooze have 
connected the island of Kambangan with the mainland. 
It is to be feared that in the end they will close the bar 
rather than increase its efficiency. Although at the very 
gates of the fertile province of the Preangers, and by 
nature fitted to be the port and market for the produce 
of the south-east of Java and a portion of the centre, 
Tjilatjap will never rival in growth the ports of Samarang 
and Surabaja, because it is upon the Indian Ocean, 
which has no commercial future as regards the Archi- 
pelago. 

III. 

The Residency of Kedu, bounded by Samarang on the 
north and the Principality of Djokjakarta on the east, 
retains the charm of a great past and an indestructible 
natural beauty. Situated in the region of the great 



ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 71 

volcanoes, backed by the majestic slopes of Sumbing, 
Sindoro, Merbabu, and Merapi, which enclose it by a 
crescent-shaped range, it is full of fertile valleys of en- 
chanting beauty. Its capital, Magelang (28,240 inhabit- 
ants, comprising 723 Europeans and 2,746 Chinese), is 
in the midst of a magnificently fruitful plain, which has 
been fertilised by the debris of the volcanoes. With its 
abundance of clear, running water, and the brilliant fresh 
foliage of its rice-fields, its plantations of coffee and 
f sugar-cane, it gives the impression of a Garden of 
Eden, and the delightful climate adds to the illusion. 

Purworedjo (14,205 inhabitants), the capital of the 
sometime province of Bagelen, has almost the charm of 
Magelang, which is now its administrative superior. It 
is easy to understand that where life is so easy and so 
pleasant the natives give but little thought to other 
things, and care little about enriching themselves, and 
still less about enriching their masters by the unceasing 
cultivation of coffee, sugar-cane, and tea, or by joylessly 
labouring in the few manufactories or workshops which 
have been erected by the uncontrollable energy of 
Europe. Nevertheless, this Garden of Eden has known 
a superior standard of life, has been the seat of a 
higher and more stable civilisation than the neigh- 
bouring provinces, and retains the vestiges of an art 
that strikes us even to-day with astonishment and 
admiration. 

Nine miles from Magelang is the Tjandi Boro-Budur, 
the Temple of the Thousand Buddhas — a gigantic stupa* 
built not upon a hill but around it, the hill forming the 
core of the stupa, and being enclosed by a series of 
sculptured terraces or balconies, which end in a central 
terrace surmounted by a gigantic dagoba. 2 There are 
no less than nine stories or stages of galleries built 
around the huge core of earth ; the six lower galleries 
are square, with re-entrant angles, and the three upper 

1 Sanscrit. A sacred tumulus to indicate the site of some episode 
in the life of Buddha, or enclosing some of his ashes or relics. 
a A variety or modification of the stupa. 



72 JAVA 

galleries are circular, and are surmounted by seventy- 
two open dagobas containing statues of Buddha. From 
the first gallery upwards the sustaining wall is covered 
with bas-reliefs illustrating various episodes in the life 
of Buddha ; gargoyles, as fantastic as any on our Gothic 
cathedrals, decorate each angle ; delicate schemes of 
decoration — flowers, birds, animals — break the monotony 
of the gutters and run along the cornices. The summit 
of the monument, consisting of the three circular terraces 
and the seventy-two dagobas, is surmounted by the 
central dagoba, which also contains a statue of Buddha, 
and in which some bronze statuettes and coins were dis- 
covered many years ago. Each side of the structure 
measures no less than 177 yards (531 feet) in length at 
the base, and the carvings, if set end to end, would 
measure 3,850 yards, or considerably over two miles, in 
length. Built presumably in the eighth or ninth century, 
by Javanese working under the inspiration of Hindu 
architects, it must once, according to the legend, have 
sheltered in its terminal cupola a pinch of the revered 
ashes of the Buddha. It is built without the aid of lime 
or mortar, the stones being jointed by means of tenons 
and mortices and dovetails which bind them solidly 
together. The material is volcanic lava, whose greyish 
tint enhances the imposing and melancholy effect of this 
enormous and complex structure — a melancholy hardly 
enlivened by the most fantastic virtuosity of the chiseL 
It stands facing Merapi, in a wide plain of slender 
coco-palms, the horizon closed by a scattered range 
of extinct volcanoes. 

Only the ruins of Angkor Wat, in French Indo-China, 
can rival Boro Budur in grandeur. Hindu by inspira- 
tion, like the latter, they surpass it in point of size, and 
are perhaps superior in grace, justness of proportion, and 
delicacy of ornamentation. 

The Dutch Government, at the repeated instance of 
such scholars as the late Dr. J. L. A. Brandes, and of 
the archaeologists, amongst whom we must mention 
Dr. 1. Groneman, the founder of the Archaeological 




NATIVE BOATS, WILLEMSKERKE, SURABAJA. 




CHINESE KAMPONG, SURABAJA. 



ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 73 

Society of Djokjakarta, 1 who has done so much to 
draw attention to the Hindo-Javanese antiquities of the 
region, has at last begun to concern itself in the fate 
of the ruins. 

The high officials and native princes who used without 
scruple to carry off statues and bas-reliefs for the decora- 
tion of their gardens or palaces, and the peasants who, 
with an unconscious vandalism which was at least more 
comprehensible, used to carry off the stones to be used for 
the most vulgar or trivial purposes, have been requested 
to stop their depredations. The work of consolidation has 
been put in hand, and a quite adequate pasan-grahan a 
has been constructed at the foot of the monument, so 
that not archaeologists and artists only, but tourists from 
all parts of the world, to whom India proper is to-day 
a little commonplace, are now able to pay their respects 
to the Temple of the Thousand Buddhas without heroic 
efforts. 

One may search the western portion of Java for the 
vestiges of a monument that shall even distantly remind 
one of Boro Budur. Here dwelt formerly, and here 
is to-day, the centre of Javanese civilisation. Sixteen 

1 Archosologische Veieeniging le Djokjakarta. Dr. Groneman has 
published a guide to the ruins of Boro Budur under the title of 
De Tjandi Baraboedoer op Midden-Java (Samarang, 1902, large 8vo) 
and many monographs on the ruins of Java. 

2 Pasangrahan, or better, pasanggrahan, a Javanese word signify- 
ing " hostelry." Analogous to the dahk bungalow of India, and the 
sala of Indo-China, but better equipped than the latter, the pasang- 
grahan is a kind of inn or hotel for the use of officials on circuit, 
but which extends its hospitality to travellers as well. It is estab- 
lished at the cost of the Dutch Government, and kept up by a 
village headman (tjamat) or a European soldier retired from the 
army of the Indies. The large pasangrahans, in addition to several 
chambers, provide provisions which are placed at the disposal of 
the traveller, according to an established tariff. Others provide 
primitive beds for the night, and the means of preparing the 
traveller's own provisions ; or, if he needs no more, the eggs and 
rice procured in the village. The tjamat also procures horses, for 
the saddle or for draught, and also guides and coolies, all according 
to an official tariff. 



74 JAVA 

miles from Boro Budur, in the princely capital of Djokja- 
karta, and to an even greater degree in Surakarta, arose 
the great empire of Mataram, of which the whole race 
preserves a glorious and reverent memory. 

IV. 

The Vorstenlanden, or Principalities, bounded to the 
north by the Residency of Samarang, to the east by that 
of Madiun, to the west by Kedu, and to the south by the 
Indian Ocean, constitute the masterpiece of the Dutch 
colonial policy, and a striking proof of the skilful 
eclecticism with which the Dutch admit any form of 
government, provided they retain the reality of power. 

The Vorstenlanden, or "Princely Lands," represent only 
one-fifteenth of the area of Java ; they are nominally inde- 
pendent, and are ruled by two princes : the Susuhunan 
of Surakarta and the Sultan of Djokjakarta. 

Until the last century they were entirely in the hands 
of the Susuhunan, who, being threatened by a revolt of 
the Chinese installed in his empire, called in the Dutch 
to assist him. They came promptly, helped to crush the 
Chinese, were handsomely paid, and remained so high in 
the esteem of the Emperor Hamangku that he submitted 
to their arbitration in his conflict with one of his brothers 
who was desirous of usurping his crown. 

The Dutch, who perhaps were not wholly innocent of 
complicity with the pretender, pronounced a verdict of a 
very satisfactory nature, especially in view of their future 
intentions. The Empire was divided into two States : 
one, which comprised about two-thirds of the territory, 
remained under the rule of the Susuhunan, Surakarta 
being the capital ; the other, with the title of Sultan and 
the capital of Djokjakarta, fell to the lot of his uncle. In 
principle the Sultan remained the vassal of the Susu- 
hunan ; every year he rendered homage, with imposing 
ceremony, at Ngawen near Djokjakarta, removing his 
sandals and kneeling before his overlord. 

It was so much in the interests of the Dutch to cause 



ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 75 

division between the two princes, that they could not 
allow this ceremony to be celebrated indefinitely ; for the 
Javanese assembled in great numbers, and it afforded an 
opportunity for conspiracy or alliance. It was not diffi- 
cult to persuade the Sultan that it was humiliating to be 
obliged to admit himself the inferior of the Susuhunan. 
One year, accordingly, when the time for the interview 
came round, the Sultan presented himself at Ngawen 
wearing a Dutch uniform. In virtue of a principle — as 
stringent as the principle of homage — which in Java 
forbids the kneeling posture to whosoever has the honour 
of bearing the insignia of European military rank — the 
Sultan remained seated before the Susuhunan, who left 
full of rage and confusion. 

The two princes were at variance for a time, but each 
considered himself independent of the other, which was 
what the Dutch had desired. The latter adopted a still 
better means of paralysing the enmity which both the 
Sultan and the Susuhunan bore them ; both at Surakarta 
and at Djokjakarta a prince is installed in the court of 
the sovereign ; both are vassals, yet independent ; they 
are entertained at the expense of the sovereign ; but, 
apart from the formula of a vague homage, and their 
enforced presence at certain court ceremonies, they are 
as free in their wide domains as are their pretended 
masters. Their kratons* or palaces, stand beside those of 
the sovereigns ; each has, even in a greater degree than 
the latter, the right to maintain a private army on the 
European model, though this is, of course, under the 
control of the Dutch Government. These two princes, 
who in Surakarta bear the titles of Pangeran Adipati 
Mangku Negoro, and at Djokjakarta those of Pangeran 
Adipati Paku Alam, owe their power to Holland, and 
hitherto have been absolutely loyal and full of feudal 
feeling. 

As a matter of fact all four, the Susuhunan included, 
although he is traditionally by far the most powerful of 
all, are in the hands of the Dutch Government, despite 
1 Kraton, or karaton, dwelling of a ratu, or prince. 



76 JAVA 

their sumptuous appearance of independence. At Sura- 
karta, as at Djokjakarta, the magnificent palace of the real 
master, the Resident, stands facing the royal kraton ; and 
a small fort, armed with artillery, situated not far away, 
stands as a reminder of the Resident's actual power. 
None of the four princes can ascend the throne without 
the consent of the Resident, who often appoints him 
according to the choice of his predecessor, always respect- 
ing as far as possible the national traditions and sus- 
ceptibilities. The Resident, installed in the kraton, 
governs openly during the interregnum, which lasts from 
the death of one sovereign until the appointment of his 
successor. He may refuse any candidate whom he 
believes would make a bad ruler, and replace him 
by another chosen by himself ; and it is he who appoints 
and pays the Prime Minister, or patih, who must every 
morning give him an exact account of all that goes on 
in the kraton, must be loyal to him even more than to 
the sovereign — must, at need, act against the latter ; it is 
the Resident also who appoints all civil officials and 
officers, so that the army, the police, and the law are 
under his hand ; and he alone may strike money. The 
Susuhunan and the Sultan retain the right of appointing 
the administrators of their domains and certain other 
employes. In all things they must take the advice of 
their " elder brother/' the Resident, who in virtue of this 
title is regarded as their senior ; all of whose " counsels " 
must be heard with deference, even should these phan- 
tom sovereigns conceive the inadmissible idea of neglect- 
ing to carry them out. Where the Resident and the 
Susuhunan appear together before the people, they are 
seated upon the same dais, upon similar thrones, the 
Resident holding the place of honour on the right. 

The Susuhunan, like the three other princes, may not 
receive a visit or a letter from the outer world without 
the permission of the Resident ; he may not leave his 
palace to go the least distance, even to take the air, 
without the same permission ; even in the most inacces- 
sible quarter of the kraton he is under the " protection," 



ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 77 

and more especially the surveillance, of a handful of 
white soldiers ; and the monopoly of all the most valu- 
able products of his State — coffee, teak, salt, the produce 
of his mines, and the trade in the nest of the sea-swallow 
— have been ceded to the Dutch Government ; he is held 
by treaties, by his surroundings, and by that unanswerable 
rival, the purse. 

In return, the princes receive from the Dutch Govern- 
ment handsome pensions, in proportion to their political 
importance ; in the case of the Susuhunan this pension 
amounts to some .£70,000 per annum. The Government 
maintains at their courts the over-scrupulous etiquette, 
the pompous titles, and the traditional ceremonies to 
which the whole Javanese people are so greatly attached ; 
it also maintains the payongs (parasols), which are the 
emblems of their high rank. It is true that in all inter- 
views with the princes the Resident is himself provided 
with a payong as large as that of the Susuhunan. He 
treats them, or should treat them outwardly in all things 
with the greatest deference. The nations are apparently 
subject only to their own laws, their own judges, and 
their own sovereign ; and although they are conscious, 
over all, of the hand of the foreigner, they have been 
accustomed for centuries to a passive submission to 
their despots, so that their national susceptibilities are 
safeguarded, and they remain obedient. The princes 
having around them all the outworn pageantry of their 
courts, full harems, and abundance of money to expend 
on luxuries and puerile caprices, are also well satisfied ; 
moreover, they are chosen and educated with a view to 
ensuring their content. 

Thanks to the ability and diplomacy displayed, the 
" Princely Lands," which still remain, for every Javanese, 
the real heart of Java, 1 have given the Dutch no anxiety 

1 " Here the heart of Java used to beat ; and nowhere have Java- 
nese life, costume, and tradition persisted as in these States, where 
the ancient Hindu architects built their splendid temples, which 
even to-day are objects of respect and admiration to all who have a 
feeling for art and beauty. Here we still find the flower of the 



78 JAVA 

since the great Javanese war (1825-1830), and are as 
subject to Dutch authority as is the rest of the island. 

The Principality of Surakarta, consisting of the plain 
watered by the Solo and the Kali x Denking and the 
Kali Pepei, its tributaries, lies between the volcanoes 
Merapi and Lawu, which bound it to east and west ; it 
has a surface of 2,393 square miles, or rather more than 
a fifth of that of Holland. The total population is 
1,512,773 inhabitants. 

The soil is fertile, and covered with plantations of 
coffee, sugar, quinine, pepper, kapok or native cotton, 
vanilla, &c. Surakarta, which the Javanese call Solo, and 
which was formerly known as Kartasura (the city built 
by heroes) is scattered over a site some fourteen miles 
in circumference, and consists of a host of wretched- 
looking little houses ; but they are lost in a perfect forest 
of coco-palms, fig-trees, tamarinds, and so forth, from 
which emerges only the mass of the kratons, the Dutch 
fortress, and the Resident's palace. Vast avenues of 
waringinsj symbols of eternity and power, unite these 
various buildings. 

Surakarta contains 109,808 inhabitants, of whom 1,512 
are Europeans and 6,532 Chinese. The Europeans 
include a Resident and an Assistant Resident ; the 
former being entrusted with all important political 
affairs, while the latter is more especially qualified to 
administrate the monopolies granted to Holland, and 
to watch over the rights of Europeans and Chinese. 

The European houses and the Protestant church are 
gathered around the magnificent Residency, in the 
shadow of the fortress constructed in 1799 and restored 
at the time of the war. All the Europeans in the prin- 
cipality — planters, officers, or officials — are under the 
obligation of presenting themselves at the Residency 
once a year, in order to celebrate the Dutch national 

Javanese nobility ; and here both language and religion have most 
faithfully preserved their original form." (H. H. van Kol, Soerakarta 9 
Indische Gids., 1904, ii.) 
1 Kali, in Malay and in Javanese, means river. 




ARAB MOSQUE, SURABAJA. 




CHINESE TEMPLE, SURABAJA. 



To face p. 78. 



ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 79 

festival, under the penalty of a fine of about one 
hundred florins ; for the Dutch Government is anxious 
to show the natives, who once succeeded in proving 
their capacity as an enemy to be reckoned with, the 
perfect discipline and cohesion of its white subjects. 

The Chinese quarter of the city is the busiest com- 
mercially ; it is full of bazaars, and all kinds of indus- 
tries peculiar to Oriental life. The kampongs of Javanese 
of the lower classes are scattered here and there along 
narrow paths which open on the great avenues, or even 
along the sides of the avenues themselves ; their houses 
are of wood and bamboo, thatched with palm-leaves. 
They ply various trades, but especially those of the 
goldsmith and the saddler, their saddlery being especially 
famous. The women weave and batik ■ sarongs, which 
have a great reputation throughout the island, on 
account of their original designs and their tasteful 
colours. 

There are two kratons of unequal importance in 
Surakarta : that of the independent prince, the Pan- 
geran Adipati Mangku-Negoro, is perhaps the more 
luxurious because better ordered, and arranged more in 
the European manner. It is also rendered more con- 
spicuous by the presence of a little army of eight or 
nine hundred men, whom the prince has the right to 
maintain within the city. But the kraton of the Susu- 
hunan is sacred in the eyes of the Javanese. It is 
separated from the Residency only by the great aloun- 
aloun ; and in its vast enclosure, the walls of which 
are pierced by four gates, above each of which rises a 
high watch-tower, it contains, like all the palaces of 
Asiatic rulers, a royal city in the heart of the capital. 
The kraton of Surakarta, which consists of a series of 
courtyards, lanes, and promenades, flanked by numerous 
buildings, is a perfect hive of people, containing no less 
than ten thousand inhabitants, the majority of whom are 
women, since not only has the Susuhunan his harem in 
his private apartments, but he may never be served or 
1 The batik process is described farther on, 



80 JAVA 

approached except by women. Everything that the 
sovereign can require, every necessity of life and of 
pleasure, is assembled within the kraton, and the 
spiritual element is represented by a great mosque with 
a gilded cupola, and the kauman, or priest's quarters, 
near which are the buildings reserved for the personal 
use of the Susuhunan, who in many parts of Java is 
regarded as the representative of God, and is practically 
worshipped in that capacity. The officers of the court 
have their special quarter in the kraton, as have 
several bodies of craftsmen : workers in gold and silver, 
carvers of wood, makers of furniture, masons, armourers, 
saddlers, and the makers of marionettes employed in the 
shadow theatre, or wayang, or of musical instruments 
for the gamelan, or the prince's orchestra. 

The portion of the kraton inhabited by the Susuhunan 
is situated at the back of the inner court, which is over- 
looked by a tall minaret of four stories. As in all palaces 
of the Far East, one enters first the hall of audience, the 
pringitan, an immense chamber open on three sides, and 
on the fourth communicating with the royal apartments. 
The ceilings, the sculptured woodwork, and the slender 
columns are decorated or incrusted with rare woods or 
precious materials, which vary with the wealth of the 
sovereign ; the effect at Surakarta being both sumptuous 
and graceful. A covered canopied throne is placed at 
the back of the apartment. Here, on the birthday of 
the Susuhunan, or on that of the Queen of Holland, or 
on the date of certain religious solemnities, are received 
ambassadors, distinguished strangers, and the Resident 
himself. These official receptions, to which no natives 
are admitted but those of high rank, who kneel in a 
posture of adoration before their sovereign, who in their 
eyes is clothed in a double sanctity, both temporal and 
spiritual, are not held more often than five or six times 
a year. The Susuhunan shows himself to his subjects 
even less frequently: seldom more than four times a 
year. On these occasions he is always accompanied by 
his " elder brother/' the Resident, who wields the actual 



ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 81 

power. Decked out like an idol in wonderful jewels, 
and followed by a many-coloured retinue of women, 
warriors, and amazons, he proceeds with pomp to the 
siti-inggil, a kind of platform erected near the entry, but 
within the walls of the kraton f surmounted by a kind of 
throne, on which the two powers take their seats beneath 
a canopy. Without the gates, the people massed in the 
aloun-aloun prostrate themselves in worship, their faces 
in the dust, happy in the sight of what for them is the 
supreme incarnation of all the powers of the earth. The 
Susuhunan receives also the homage of his nobles, who 
drag themselves on hands and knees to the foot of the 
throne. Then the entire staff of the kraton passes before 
him in review, including his guard of honour; and then 
a distribution of food is made among the crowd, the 
food being carried in enormous baskets, the least of 
them, like all that concerns his sacred person, being 
sheltered by a huge payong, or parasol, of gold. Finally 
sweetmeats and betel-nut are offered to his entourage; he 
then returns, with no less solemnity, to bury himself 
in his harem, amidst his three thousand wives, to waste, 
in a grotesque luxury, his strength, his intelligence, his 
will, and the .£200,000 of revenue which are still his to 
spend each year. 

Close to the royal kraton and that of the sovereign's 
quasi-rival, the Mangku Negoro, the princes of the 
royal family and the high dignitaries of the court have 
built their dalems, or palaces, similar, though smaller in 
size and less luxurious, to the kraton of the Susuhunan. 
The prime minister or Grand Vizir, often a near kinsman 
of the sovereign, but a faithful ally of the Dutch, who 
alone appoint him to this important post of supervision, 
endeavours, like the Mangku Negoro, to interpret his 
more progressive ideas by the more practical, modern, 
and European arrangement of his dwelling. 

Klaten (8,209 inhabitants), Bojolali (6,125), and 
Sragen (7,963), are the only large villages which have 
as yet sprung up in the Principality of Surakarta. 
From the historian's point of view, their glory is 

7 



82 JAVA 

departed ; yet to-day they are waking to a new life 
under the stimulus of their economic wealth. Klaten 
in particular is becoming the centre of a renascence of 
the Javanese people, under the impulse communicated 
by an elite which has been created by European educa- 
tion, and which desires the improvement of the race, a 
desire devoid of any hostility towards the Dutch Govern- 
ment ; its aim a more intelligent, just, and appropriate 
employment of the intelligence and the soil of Java. 

The second Principality, the Sultanate of Djokjakarta, 
is only thirty-six miles from Surakarta, with which it is 
connected by a railway. Situated in a plain at the foot 
of Merapi, Djokjakarta, which contains 79,567 inhabit- 
ants, of whom 1,477 are Europeans and 5,266 Chinese, 
and covers a space some three and three-quarter miles 
long by two and a half miles wide, is unhappily at the 
mercy of the neighbouring volcano ; whenever the latter 
enters upon a term of repose there are terrible earth- 
quakes, one of which, in 1867, destroyed the entire city 
and killed many of the inhabitants. Djokjakarta is built 
on the same plan as that of its sister city Surakarta, but 
is ruled by a Sultan instead of a Susuhanan, which 
implies a certain degree of inferiority. The Residency, 
which is extremely luxurious, is built in a semi- 
European, semi-Asiatic style ; it is protected by a fort- 
ress, in which five hundred European soldiers watch 
events; the European dwellings, which in general are 
as comfortable as they are ornamental, are scattered 
about the neighbourhood ; the Chinese kampong con- 
tains the bazaars and workshops of cabinet-makers of 
renowned skill ; while the natives live in little houses 
among the palms, beside the majestic avenues of warin- 
gins. The kraton of the independent prince, the Paku 
Alam, is smaller than that of the Sultan, which is situ- 
ated at one end of the aloun-aloun, the Residency being 
at the other end. The royal kraton, which is as large 
and as ineffectually fortified as that of the Susuhunan, 
contains the same labyrinth of lanes, courts, and innu- 
merable buildings ; it contains a population even more 




y-,v'-iv. ■■■# 







ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 83 

numerous, amounting to fifteen thousand souls, although 
the revenues of the Sultan are not as large as those of the 
Susuhunan. The harem, the private apartments, the 
little pleasure-houses built in the interior of the kraton, 
the wealth of carving and incrustation in the hall of 
audience, and the pomp displayed at important cere- 
monies are the object of a kind of puerile emulation 
between the two sovereigns. 

Djokjakarta has the advantage over Surakarta of possess- 
ing, on a hill not far from the city, the venerated necro- 
polis in which sleep four hundred princes of the house of 
Mataram : a turbulent, courageous, and luxurious race ; 
and it is on the Sultan's territory that the finest Indo- 
Javanese ruins are found, excepting only those of Boro- 
Budur. 

One of these monuments, the Tjandi Mendut, or 
Mundut, long buried in the sand and ashes vomited by 
Merapi, is only one and a quarter miles from Boro-Budur, 
and is, like the latter, a Buddhist temple. 

It is a structure of octagonal form, crowned by a 
cupola in the form of a hollow pyramid, over 60 feet 
in height. Built, like Boro-Budur, of blocks of dressed 
lava, Tjandi Mendut still preserves the general outlines of 
the original structure and contains three colossal statues 
of Buddha and a number of bas-reliefs, carvings, and 
arabesques, examples of an assured and delicate art. 

The ruins of Prambanan, on the road from Djokjakarta 
to Surakarta, are superior to those of Tjandi Mendut in 
mass, in the boldness of their architecture and the beauty 
of certain of the carvings. These ruins are situated in a 
wide plain overlooked by Merapi, which had so thoroughly 
covered them with its ashes, which supported a dense 
vegetation, that they were discovered only by chance in 
1797 ; no serious attempt at excavation was undertaken 
until 1885. To-day there is a question of their restora- 
tion — a question w 7 hich is provoking terrible controver- 
sies between architects, archaeologists, and Orientalists, 
and a keen anxiety among artists of all professions. The 
restoration of Tjandi Mendut has already been attempted 



84 JAVA 

(in 1897) by the architect Van de Kamer : with a degree 
of success which is variously appreciated, being highly 
praised by some and as warmly condemned by others. 

Despite their regrettable state of decay, the ruins of 
Prambanan still allow one to appreciate the grandiose 
proportions of the Tjandi Loro Djanggrang (the Temple 
of the Virgin — in the shape of Durga, the spouse of Shiva) 
— of which they are to-day the sole remains. 

On a vast square terrace are erected six great sanc- 
tuaries of polygonal form, whose platforms, cornices, and 
porches are decorated with bas-reliefs and sculptures 
equal to those of Boro-Budur : the central sanctuary was 
consecrated to Shiva, that on the north to Vishnu, and 
that on the south to Brahmah, as the three statues of the 
gods within the sanctuaries testify to-day. The sanctuary 
of Shiva is flanked by lateral chapels, of which the two 
most curious, dedicated to Durga and Ganesha, still 
contain their effigies. The great central terrace which 
supports the six temples is surrounded by three succes- 
sive series of small temples, disposed in a square forma- 
tion ; the number of the small temples being forty-four in 
the inner rank, fifty-two in the next, and sixty in the 
third and outermost rank. But while the large sanc- 
tuaries, more solidly built upon the central terrace, are 
still preserved as regards their main features, the little 
temples are almost without exception mere masses of 
sculptured stones, broken cornices, and shattered cupolas, 
their ruin being the work of the threefold action of 
Merapi, the vegetation, and the utilitarian sacrilege of 
natives. 

The ruins of Tjandi Sewu (the Thousand Temples), 
which are not far away, are not, like those of Prambanan, 
of a plainly Brahministic and Shivaistic type. The 
central sanctuary used to contain a statue of Buddha, 
which must, it is thought, have been removed in 1806. 
For the rest, it is the largest structure among all the 
Indo-Javanese monuments whose ruins have as yet 
been discovered. As far as one can judge from its 
lamentable state of decay, it must have consisted of 240 



ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 85 

small temples, disposed in four ranks about a central 
square containing a large central temple, of which the 
cupola was shattered by the earthquake caused by Merapi 
in 1867, which also blocked the entrance. 

To judge by their numbers, the powers of conception 
which they reveal, the boldness of execution, and the 
perfect art of their decorations, all these monuments 
prove that here there formerly existed a great and 
flourishing empire ; extremely populous, to judge by the 
swarms of artisans and labourers who must have been 
employed in the construction of these gigantic buildings ; 
rich and secure, since it was able without anxiety to 
undertake such lengthy works of peace ; deeply religious 
and of a high degree of civilisation, since it glorified its 
gods in monuments whose mere remains compel the 
admiration of all after centuries have elapsed. 1 

V. 

The Residency of Rembang is bounded on the north 
by the Java Sea, yet it has not a single large port which 
might provide it with the commercial stimulus by which 
its neighbours benefit — Samarang and Surabaja. The 
capital, Rembang, however, although some few miles 
from the sea, has a dry and sandy beach, which is 
infinitely more healthy than the beaches of most of the 
north-coast ports of Java. With its thirteen thousand 
inhabitants it is an agreeable city, which drives an 
active trade in head-kerchiefs and sarongs woven and 
batik' d in the province, carefully worked mattings, and, 
above all, in trasi, trubuk, and krufiuk, those famous 
condiments of prawns and pounded and fermented fish 
with which the natives season their rice, and which 

1 Among the temples of the plain of Prambanan and besides the 
group of Loro Djanggrang we have yet to mention Tjandi Plaosan 
and Tjandi Sari, two very remarkable Buddhist temples. The 
beautiful specimen of Indo-Javanese architecture which housed the 
East Indian Section at the Exposition of 1900 was a very successful 
copy of Tjandi Sari, 



86 JAVA 

some of the European colonists appreciate as eagerly 
as the natives. The greater portion of the trade 
of Rembang is in the hands of a colony of Chinese, 
which numbers over two thousand members. Tuban, 
although merely a district capital, is far more active 
and populous than Rembang. It has, moreover, a 
very different history, a still-existing witness of which 
is its ancient palace, one of the oldest in Java, and the 
venerated tomb which it shelters — that of the Susuhunan 
Bonang, one of the first and most ardent propagandists 
of Islam in Java. 

Whether attracted by this sanctuary or by an active 
market, there is a colony of 511 Arabs in Tuban, whose 
population is 24,500. It is the town in which the Arabs 
of the province chiefly congregate ; but they are com- 
pletely outnumbered by their competitors, the Chinese, 
who number 3,440. The bathing station of Bekti, or 
Bukti, which is a very short distance from the town, 
enjoys a certain reputation. Bodjonegoro and Blora 
(containing respectively 12,560 and 11,990 inhabitants), 
both district capitals, are pretty towns, regularly laid out 
and engaged in various commerce ; Blora in particular 
looks extremely charming in the midst of its teak planta- 
tions, which are the finest in all Java. 

The Residency of Madiun, which has only a small 
seaboard on the Indian Ocean, between the Principality 
of Surakarta, the Residency of Rembang, and that of 
Kediri, has a particularly torrid climate. The capital, 
Madiun, contains 22,819 inhabitants, of whom 922 are 
Europeans and 1,827 Chinese. It is on the River Solo, 
in the great basin of Solo or Bengawan. Without a 
direct outlet, it dispatches through Rembang and Tuban 
the entire produce of this highly cultivated region. 
Ngawi (8,533 inhabitants), formerly a strategic position 
of value, which played a considerable part in the 
Javanese War, Magetan (12,768), and Ponogoro, are only 
local markets, well frequented by the natives. Magetan, 
at the foot of Lawu, is 1,200 feet above the sea, which 
renders it more healthy than the surrounding country. 



ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 87 

It possesses two sugar-mills. The capital of the 
remaining district, Patjitan (6,911 inhabitants), is within 
sight of the sea, without having direct access to it ; it 
overlooks a wide bay giving safe anchorage, but is 
separated from it by a belt of muddy swamp, which is 
to-day transformed into a belt of paddy-fields, or sawahs. 

VI. 

The eastern portion of Java comprises the Residencies 
of Surabaja, Kediri, Pasuruan, Besuki, and Madura. 

The Residency of Surabaja, in particular, is one of the 
wealthiest and most densely peopled of all Java ; it is 
the superior of Samarang and the rival of Batavia. The 
capital, Surabaja, which was formerly the capital of all 
the Dutch settlements in the East Indies, has been 
forced to cede that title to Batavia, which is less popu- 
lous, unless we include Meester Cornelis, and a less 
cheerful and active city. Surabaja is the commercial 
centre par excellence ; of its 150,000 inhabitants 8,000 are 
Europeans, nearly 15,000 are Chinese, and some 2,800 
are Arabs. At least four-fifths of the whole think of 
nothing but business, of buying and selling, the natives 
themselves having been drawn into the active commercial 
life of the port. Commerce is the chief occupation ; the 
agreeables of life, which are by no means lacking, are 
only one of the results of this commercial activity, not 
the end of it. Oppressive though the climate may be, 
in Surabaja men work incessantly, without relaxation, 
and no city in the island gives a more vivid impression, 
an impression that is powerful in spite of its apparent 
vulgarity, of hard and fruitful labour. Hence the 
animation which one seeks in vain in old Batavia, 
where trade and fortune have the air o£ being dealt 
with in a more somnolent manner. 

Surabaja is situated at the mouth of the vast alluvial 
basin of the Solo, and is actually built on the alluvial 
deposits of the river and its affluents, which are gaining 
slowly on the sea, But there is little reason to fear that 



88 JAVA 

the prosperity of the port may suffer ; for the port itself 
is at the mouth of the Kali Mas, or River of Gold, so 
called from the yellow colour of its water ; and the Strait 
of Madura, which at this point, on account of its 
narrowness, has received the Dutch title of Trechter, or 
the Funnel, is sufficiently wide and sheltered from the 
winds to remain for many years to come the best and 
safest anchorage in Java. 

Surabaja possesses a naval arsenal of the first class, 
with a gun foundry, naval ship-building yards, and docks, 
including a dry dock. Hundreds of Javanese artisans 
work under the supervision of European engineers and 
foremen in the Artillerie Constructie Winkel, one of the 
largest establishments in Java. 

The Dutch Government had intended to surround 
Surabaja with a costly system of fortifications ; but 
before they were finished the city, in the full tide of its 
growth, had burst through this too scanty garment ; and 
it is extremely unlikely that an attempt which so 
miscarried will ever be revived. 

The city is throwing out its new quarters, which are 
like so many towns with their own peculiar character- 
istics, along the two banks of the Kalis Mas, which are 
connected by the Red Bridge. Old Surabaja and old 
Batavia, with their stone houses with gables and cornices, 
their canals and their long main streets, where the houses 
stand closely ranked, remind one of the ancient cities of 
Holland. 

In Surabaja, however, the Europeans have not 
abandoned the ancient city. Perhaps the luxurious 
villas, with their wide gardens, which are grouped about 
the Residency at Simpang, do not seem so much healthier 
than the old, sumptuous, gloomy buildings ; at all events, 
they migrate unwillingly. 

The Red Bridge connects the European with the 
Chinese quarter. The unexpected cleanness and comfort 
of the latter witness to the wealth of the Celestials, and 
give one an idea of the important part which they play in 
the business world of Surabaja. The Arab quarter, 



ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 89 

infinitely less clean, and consisting of a jumble of sordid 
houses, shows that the Arabs have been forced in matters 
of commercial significance to yield the palm to the 
Europeans and Chinese. 

Nearly all the elements of the Archipelago being 
represented in Surabaja, the native kampongs are many ; 
they have sprung up along the roads, or along the banks 
of the canals. There is the Malay kampong, the 
Sundanese kampong, the Javanese kampong, the 
Madurese kampong ; and corporations or guilds will 
often result in a body of men living apart from the 
men of their own race, so that the kampong of the potters 
is distinct from that of the saddlers or the blacksmiths. 
This agglomeration of the most dissimilar types and 
races appears entirely natural in this energetic, bustling 
city, whose destiny has always seemed to be to domi- 
nate; and indeed the famous Indo-Javanese empire of 
Madjapahit, which was for a time supreme over the 
whole of Java, and which succumbed only in the six- 
teenth century under the blows of Islam, 1 had its rise 
at Modjokerto, some thirty miles from Surabaja. 

Surabaja enjoys the glory of her bygone memories, 
the wealth and activity of the present, and a future which 
will keep pace and increase in importance with the more 
prominent part which the Archipelago will necessarily 
be called upon to play in the economic and political 
history of the Far East ; but she is lacking in two things, 
and it will probably be long before she obtains them : 
they are, namely, pure water and pure air. Madura, 
which lies facing Surabaja, and shelters the roadstead 
from the full violence of the winds, deprives the city of 
their cooling influence. The temperature of Surabaja 
is one of the most implacably torrid in Java. Drinkable 
water is more than scarce ; the only water which well- 
to-do Europeans will drink is the Purut water, which 
arrives daily by train* in large iron tanks, from Pasuruan. 

To these two disadvantages we must add the presence 
of a vast crowd of human beings, the majority of whom 
x In 1518, according to M. G. P. Rouffaer. 



90 JAVA 

entertain the most absolute contempt for the laws of 
hygiene. Mosquitoes are a permanent plague in Surabaja, 
and only too often cholera bears them company. The 
kampongs of the natives are its favourite lurking-place, but 
the gay and aristocratic quarter of Simpang, which is 
doubtless too near the native city, is by no means safe 
from its visits. This is why people as a general thing 
avoid Surabaja, or only pass through it, stopping or 
settling there only under the imperious necessity of 
making or increasing their fortunes. 

The various districts of the Residency of Surabaja all 
share to a greater or less extent in its prosperity and 
commercial activity. Djombang and Lamongan, the 
capitals of two of these districts, contain less than fifteen 
thousand inhabitants. Sidoardjo, which contains only 
10,770, is known chiefly for the hot mud craters in the 
neighbouring hills ; but Modjokerto and Grisei are of 
very different dimensions ; Modjokerto, containing 97,624 
inhabitants, and the scanty ruins of Madjapahit, is a 
worthy attendant upon Surabaja ; Grisei is a fallen 
queen, supplanted by the latter. 

A long time ago Grisei was, it is true, the chief port of 
the east of Java, and the principal centre of commerce ; 
to-day it is no more than a fair port of call for coasting 
vessels. Formerly it was a kind of holy city, whence 
Islam extended its domination over Java ; where some 
pious and ambitious Mahomedans, probably from the 
outer world, founded a dynasty of priestly kings, whose 
moral power was still so great when the Dutch first 
settled in Java that the latter at first regarded them as the 
representatives of a Musulman papacy. 1 

Of the Sunans of Giri no trace is left save the venerated 
tomb, on the hill overlooking Grisei, of their founder, 
Maulana Malik Ibrahim, and one relic still more extra- 
ordinary, the writing-reed, or stylus, of the pious ascetic, 
which, having served him to write the Koran, was trans- 
formed into a magic krees. This krees one day, in the 

x Soesoehoenans or Soehnans. (See Veih, Java^ Ind. ed v vol. i., 
p. 236.) 



ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 91 

struggle between the Hindus and Musulmans, when the 
victorious people of Madjapahit were pursuing the latter 
through Giri, flung itself, at the prayer of the Sunan, 
against the Hindus, and effected a massacre, unaided and 
unheld. When it had swept the Hindus from the city 
it returned of its own motion, and received the name 
of Kjai Kalam-munjeng — the Plain-Dealing Calamus. 

Despite the decreasing importance of Grisei, a colony 
of nearly twelve hundred Arabs lingers there. It must be 
remembered that the bygone greatness of Grisei was due 
to men of their race and faith. 

The province or Residency of Kediri, to the south 
of Surabaja, and washed by the Indian Ocean, is of a 
more distinctly agricultural character than its neighbour ; 
its towns are smaller and less wideawake, and are sur- 
rounded by huge plantations of coffee, fields of sugar- 
cane, and bright green paddy-fields. 

Kediri, the capital, has none the less a fair population : 
40,200, and of these 3,760 are Chinese, whose presence 
guarantees an active industrial and commercial move- 
ment. Kediri, indeed, is the temporary recipient of all 
the products of the surrounding region, which afterwards 
proceed to Surabaja by rail, or by the innumerable 
prahus which descend the Brantas. Kediri has also its 
workers in gold and silver, its coppersmiths, carpenters, 
potters, leather-workers, mat-makers, whose work has a 
considerable reputation ; the city is divided into two parts 
by the River Brantas, which is crossed by a fine modern 
bridge. On the left bank is the Residency, imposing 
as always, in the midst of a park-like garden ; here also 
is an old fort, and the finest of the European houses. 
On the right bank is the Regency, the native and Chinese 
kampongs, the old European quarter, and the only remark- 
able monument in Kediri : the ancient tomb of the family 
of the Regents of Kediri, known as the Astana Gedong. 

At a distance of three miles, on the flanks of a hill 
called Gunung Klotok, are artificial grottos, Selo mang- 
ling, containing statuettes of Buddha, to which natives 
and Chinese carry offerings of fruit and flowers. 



92 JAVA 

The other district capitals, Ngandjuk, Tulungagung, 
Trenggalek, and Blitar, have less life and character 
among them all than Kediri ; but they are set in a gay 
landscape, so densely cultivated that the whole world 
seems a garden. Blitar has hardly yet recovered from 
the eruption of Kloot, which in 1875 covered it with a 
wave of boiling mud, which buried houses, plantations, 
and human beings. 

The Residency of Pasuruan, which is in matters 
agricultural as wealthy as that of Kediri, is better pro- 
vided with outlets. It is washed both by the Indian 
Ocean and the Strait of Madura, is closely connected 
by rail with the great market of Surabaja, and is also 
enabled to export its produce directly through its capital 
Pasuruan. At one time it seemed that the latter might 
rival or even be victorious over Surabaja. Its admirable 
anchorage was already frequented in the sixteenth 
century, and in the eighteenth century Pasuruan was the 
capital of the kingdom of Surapati. The Dutch reduced 
it to a more modest political position, but as lately as 
i860 it was still one of the four great commercial cities of 
Java. The construction of the railway from Malang to 
Surabaja struck it a mortal blow, as it diverted all the 
produce of the extreme east of Java towards its rival. 
Although a slight revival has been noticed of late, 
Pasuruan even now has only some twenty-eight thousand 
inhabitants ; the fine houses built by the Europeans have 
been abandoned for a song to the Chinese, for which 
reason the Chinese quarter in this city has an appearance 
of wealth and comfort which one looks for elsewhere in 
vain. The Javanese and Madurese kampongs, near the 
great Pasuruan fish-ponds, are extremely picturesque. 
The Residency, the Protestant and Catholic churches, 
and a mosque with a minaret, have finally given quite a 
modern aspect to a somewhat sleepy and unprogressive 
town, while they also mark the mixture of races and 
beliefs. 

Pasuruan is chiefly occupied in exporting coffee, sugar, 
and fish, the latter to Madura. A little way outside the 



ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 93 

town is the factory where the pure waters of Purut 
(Poeroet) are bottled, and a Government laboratory 
where experiments are conducted referring to the 
culture of sugar-cane. 

Bangil, a district capital in this Residency, with 17,866 
inhabitants, of whom 856 are Chinese and 844 Arabs, is 
far more active ; Lumadjang (16,128 inhabitants), and 
Kraksaan (3,667), situated in two other districts, serve 
as temporary points of concentration for all the agricul- 
tural products of a most wonderfully fertile district. 

But the pearls of this province, which is itself one of 
the jewels of Java, are Probolinggo and Malang, one 
on the north end the other at its eastern extremity. 

Probolinggo, or Banger, as the natives call it, from 
the name of the river at whose mouth it is built, is on 
the Strait of Madura. It contains 14,560 inhabitants, of 
whom 2,590 are Chinese and 351 Arabs, while the 
Europeans hitherto have not exceeded 588 in number. 
In 1895 it possessed only 8,705 inhabitants. It has thus 
nearly doubled its inhabitants in fifteen years. It is well 
and regularly built, pierced by wide streets running at 
right angles, which are shaded by groups of evergreen 
trees : tamarinds, banyans, and others : and the general 
aspect is extremely attractive, the town being clean 
and cheerful. The harbour consists of a great oblong 
basin, on the quays of which are erected the warehouses 
where the final handling of coffee, sugar, and tobacco 
takes place ; and there the vessels lie moored. At the 
entrance to the harbour is a long mole surmounted by a 
lighthouse. 

Probolinggo is also the centre of a genuine intellectual 
movement, being one of those cities which are playing 
a prominent part in the Javanese renascence. It pos- 
sesses also a college for the sons of chiefs, and a Normal 
College for native teachers, who represent the Govern- 
ment's sole effort in the province of education. The 
number of students is necessarily increasing ; so that 
although Probolinggo is no longer, as in 1900, the 
capital city of a province, being reduced to the status of 



94 JAVA 

district capital, it still has all the attractions of a small 
capital. 

Malang is far better developed. A second-rate, over- 
grown village ten years ago, it now surpasses Pasuruan, 
the official residence, in commercial activity, and will, 
to all appearances, continue to do so for many years to 
come. It also surpasses it in charm. It is situated at 
the base of the Tengger range, in a magnificent plain, the 
horizon of which is enclosed by what are perhaps the 
finest volcanoes in Java : Bromo, Ardjurno, and farther 
to the south-east the majestic Semeru, while at the back 
is Kawi. Thanks to an altitude of 1,460 feet above sea- 
level, Malang enjoys an agreeable climate, the tem- 
perature not exceeding 8o° in the day, while at night it 
may fall to 6i°. Although not absolutely free from the 
paludian fevers which infest all Java, rising from her 
low-lying plains and her swampy girdle of sawahs, 
Malang knows them only in an attenuated form, and 
is a salutary refuge for those suffering from anaemia 
or exhausted by the torrid sunshine of the Indies. All 
green and white, in the midst of a valley which cultiva- 
tion has turned into a garden, Malang affords at the 
end of every street the splendid panorama of the 
mountains. The aloun-aloun, waringins and mango and 
breadfruit-trees growing along its borders or scattered 
in groups in the open, is surrounded by the Assistant 
Residency, the Regency, the mosque, the necessary 
public buildings, the church, and all the signs of or- 
ganised and official life ; the native and Chinese kampongs 
hang upon the outskirts of this aristocratic quarter, 
making the suburbs of the town, so that the eye enjoys 
them while the sense of smell escapes offence. 

The prosperity of Malang dates from the cultivation 
of the entire district, which is one of the most fertile in 
Java. In 1808 it contained about thirty thousand inhabi- 
tants ; to-day there are half a million, most of whom are 
occupied in planting and harvesting coffee and sugar- 
cane, and to these we must add, at the period of harvest, 
a floating population of nearly a hundred thousand 




THE HILL STATION, TOSARI. 




To face p. 94. 



ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 95 

workers who flock from all parts of the island to earn 
the handsome wage of two and a half florins a day — 
equivalent to four shillings and two pence, or an 
American dollar. The city itself, which was a poor 
village only twenty years ago, to-day possesses 29,540 
inhabitants, which number includes a colony of 1,353 
Europeans, which is much larger than the colony 
in Pasuruan, one of 3,537 Chinese, and one of 342 
Arabs. During the harvest season the activity is intense ; 
on all sides one meets with nothing but loads of coffee 
or sugar-cane ; in September a complete train of this 
latter product leaves the railway station every ten minutes, 
to feed the sugar factories and refineries of the island. 

Malang, in spite of its wealth and its beauty, is sur- 
passed in attractiveness by Tosari. Without being 
even a district capital, this beautifully situated village is 
a hygienic paradise for all the sick or convalescent of 
Java. Nearly 600 feet above the level of the sea, in the 
mountains of Tengger, built on a foundation of dry, 
sandy ashes, Tosari is the most invaluable sanatorium 
in the whole of Java. Indeed we may say, despite the 
merits of Sindanglaja and Garut, that it is the only 
sanatorium that really deserves the name ; since it is 
the only one, in the general opinion, at which one is 
absolutely safe from fevers; cholera, dysentery, and 
beri-beri have never been known there ; and in default 
of Europe it is the objective of all the convalescents 
and consumptives of Java. It is unsuitable only for 
rheumatic, cardiac, and nervous patients. The tempera- 
ture never rises above 79 , and the average is 62*6° : 
the nights are so cool as to procure one the luxury 
— a delightful one in the tropics — of being able to 
sleep between the bedclothes instead of on the top 
of them. The flora, the Alpine character of the land- 
scape, the torrential rivers, and the bracing sweetness 
of the air give one the impression of being transported 
suddenly into Switzerland ; and the Tenggris villages 
which cover the slopes near the sanatorium give a 
touch of the unreal and the picturesque. 



96 JAVA 

The Tenggris and their goats, which wander all day 
long, with tinkling bells, in the forests of chemaras 1 — 
those tropical pines which are three times the height 
of ours — take shelter for the night in villages of rustic 
wooden huts with roofs of thatch, which are defended 
by strong palisades of interlaced bamboos ; the only 
thing they have forgotten to borrow from the Swiss is 
cleanliness. But they are loyal, active, good workers, 2 
hospitable, and unusually moral ; they are stronger, 
browner, and shorter than the Javanese of the plains. 
They number some five or six thousand, and are scat- 
tered among some fifty villages. They marry only 
among themselves, and are firmly attached to their 
ancient faith : the worship of Shiva, greatly corrupted 
by animistic practices. Each year they celebrate a 
slamettan, or sacrificial repast, ascending for that purpose 
the Dasar, on the flanks of Bromo or Brahma, to whom 
they make oblation of rice and fruits, in place of the 
human sacrifices which, it is said, were formerly offered. 
All this district has remained strongly impregnated with 
Hindu beliefs, which flourished with a vigour that is 
still attested by the curious ruins of Singosari, at a 
distance of some six or seven miles from Malung, and 
those of Tumpang, which are about fourteen miles from 
the same city.3 

The Tjandi Singosari, or "Temple of the Garden of 
the Lion," is a graceful structure in three stories, of 
which the highest, which rests upon a square terrace, 
has suffered the worst damage. The interior sanctuary, 
with its finely carved outer walls, is now empty ; but it 
probably contained an image of some deity of the 

1 The chemara, or tjemara, is a tree of the Casuarinae family. 
One species, the Casuarina Junghuhniana Miq., is found most com- 
monly on the summits of the volcanoes of Eastern Java. 

2 The Tenggris are now in certain localities cultivating the 
ordinary potato with considerable success. 

3 The Tenggris, or Wong Tengger, literally mountaineers, high- 
landers, form, according to Mr. G. P. Rouffaer, the only actually 
surviving trace of the civilisation of Madjapahit in its latter period. 
(See Tenggenezen> in the EncycL v. Ned-Indie.) 



ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 97 

Brahministic pantheon ; probably one of Shiva. Not 
far away, in the shade of a crescent-shaped grove of 
coco-palms, are two statues some 8 or 9 feet high, of 
Shiva and Ganesha, erect upon their altars. 

The ruins of Tumpang, in a still more pronounced 
condition of dilapidation, rise from the midst of a magni- 
ficent grove of bamboos, areca-palms, and banana-trees. 
The form of the temple is that of a pyramid built in three 
stages, with terraces accessible by flights of steps. The 
stairs leading to the first terrace are guarded by rakshasas* 
and a motive of animals, men, and plants, carved with 
admirable art and patience, runs along the outer friezes. 
The force of the vegetation, even more than the forgetful- 
ness of man, has been responsible for the destruction of 
this rare work of art. Palm-trees and lianas have dis- 
jointed the stones with the slow, irresistible pressure of 
their roots ; the delicate chiselling is corroded by moss 
and lichen. If the Government does not take means to 
preserve them as it has done at Boro-Budur, the ruins 
will in time disappear under the victorious assault of the 
vegetable world. 

The province of Bezuki, or Besuki, holds a modest place 
as compared with Surabaja and Pasuruan. The city 
which has given the province its name, and of which it is 
the capital, is hardly more than a district centre ; it is 
merely a great village of five thousand inhabitants, not far 
from the sea, but untouched by the commercial current of 
East Java. It has been supplanted by Bondjowoso, which 
apparently owes its good fortune solely to its position on 
the railway. Built in a valley of the great plain of 
Panarukan, near the Sampejan or Panarukan River, it 
has only some 8,700 inhabitants, but it contains a few 
important sugar and tobacco houses. 

Djember and Situbondo, both district centres, are 
developing very slowly, despite their plantations of 
coffee, tobacco, and sugar-cane. Djember has now 
only 7,790 inhabitants, and Situbondo, which in 1895 

1 Among the Hindus, a kind of demon ; here, guardians of the 
temples, of grotesque and terrible aspect. See Introductory Chapter. 

8 



98 JAVA 

contained 10,690, has now no more than 6,150. Its 
traffic has been taken by the port of Panarukan, which 
was the first station of Alfonso cT Albuquerque in the six- 
teenth century, and at that time was one of the great 
markets of Java ; to-day it merely exists, as it has few 
outlets, all the important trade of the East having left it 
for Surabaja, Probolinggo, or Pasuruan. The only town 
of any importance in the province (and that is important 
only by comparison with the rest) is Banjuwangi, which is 
built upon the narrowest part of the Strait of Bali. This 
port used at one time to be frequented by a great number 
of sailing vessels. Although the town has greatly suffered 
inasmuch as it was finally decided that the railway which 
serves Java from east to west should not pass through it, 
it has derived some compensation from the fact that it is a 
point of call for the steamers which run between Sura- 
baja and the smaller of the Sunda Islands ; and it is 
also the point of junction of the international cable line 
between Australia and Batavia. The city, whose title 
signifies " Perfumed Waters," hardly merits it as far as 
the dirty native kampongs are concerned ; but the old 
Residency, occupied now by an Assistant Resident, and 
the European quarter on the Sukaradja hill, enjoy a 
magnificent view of the Strait of Bali and the surround- 
ing country. The population to-day is 18,732, of whom 
256 are Europeans, 569 Chinese, and 543 Arabs. 

The last of the seventeen Residencies of modern Java 
is constituted by its neighbour, the island of Madura, 
in which the Dutch Government substituted its own 
authority, without warfare or serious difficulties, for that 
of the native princes, or Panembahan, between the years 
of 1883 (when it took over Sumenep) and 1885 (when 
Bangkalan was taken over). 

The capital of Madura, Pamekasan, is a small town of 
only 8,440 inhabitants : but although small, it is clean, 
pretty, and is rapidly improving. The Residency is 
luxurious and its gardens delightful ; the Regency, in- 
stalled in the huge old kraton, retains a princely charm 
which flatters the feelings of the natives. A tramway 



ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 99 

connects Pamekasan with Bangkalan, Sampang, and 
Sumenep. 

Sumenep, in the east of the island, is a district capital, 
and the seat of an Assistant Resident and a Regent. It 
was formerly the seat of the Government of Panembahan. 
It is the largest town in Madura, with its 17,930 inhabi- 
tants ; but it appears to have seen its best days, as in 1900 
the population numbered 20,020. The Madurese, who are 
robust, hard workers, and very frugal, are continually 
flowing into Java, where the spread of cultivation in the 
eastern provinces assures them of well-paid labour. From 
Surabaja to Malang, and as far as Panarukan, one meets 
them working for and highly appreciated by the foreign 
element, whether Chinese or European. Sumenep, 
whose dwellings are scattered over a very large area, 
contains nothing worthy of remark, save the house of 
the Assistant Resident : a modern building which the 
people persist in calling a kraton ; and the unusually 
fine memorial monument which the last Panembahan 
of Madura has built in honour of his family. The native 
industries are actively pursued, and articles used in fishery 
and navigation constitute a comparatively lucrative trade. 
Along the shores of the bay, at the edge of the rice-fields, 
are the villages of the salt-workers, who live by producing 
salt for the State. 

Sampang, another district centre, contains 8,924 in- 
habitants, living in bamboo houses, and eking out an 
existence by local trade. Bangkalan, in the west of 
the island, is the remaining district capital, with a popu- 
lation of 14,318. It has a fairly good harbour, and owes 
its present importance to Surabaja, as it formerly owed it 
to Grisei. It exports to the great commercial capital 
the best products of Madura : animals destined for the 
butcher, fruits, swallows' nests, vegetable down, bark for 
tanning, and certain articles carved or chiselled by 
Madurese artisans ; it receives in return rice, and 
European manufactures. 

To sum up : Java retains, throughout all her adminis- 
trative divisions, the aspect of a country pre-eminently 



100 JAVA 

agricultural. Her overpeopled territory contains only 
three large cities (in the European sense of the word) ; 
two ancient native capitals ; many pleasant, overgrown 
villages which are spoken of as cities ; and innumerable 
dessas 9 or hamlets, which are lost among the countless 
plantations, and whose inhabitants live close to the soil 
to which they look for all things. 



CHAPTER V 
THE NATIVES OF JAVA 

I. Distribution of the native element in Java : the Sundanese and 
Madurese compared with the Javanese. — II. The Javanese. — 
III. The Javanese house and village. — IV. The family and 
marriage. — V. Daily occupations ; agricultural labour, hunting, 
and fishing. — VI. The batik industry : Javanese clothing. — 
VII. The love of pleasure, and the means of satisfying it : 
betel-nut, tobacco, opium and hemp ; cock-fighting and 
gambling. — VIII. Failings with which Europeans reproach the 
Javanese ; nearly all of which have some historic excuse. 



I. 

Of the 30,098,000 inhabitants which people Java and 
Madura, 29,715,900 are natives, 293,190 Chinese, 19,148 
Arabs, 2,840 Oriental foreigners, and 64,917 Europeans, 
or men of European descent. 

These natives are not all Javanese. The ports contain 
some 300,000 Malayan immigrants ; in Batavia the 
Malays are especially numerous, and even outnumber the 
Javanese. The Sundanese, whose numbers vary between 
two and a half and three millions, are found in the 
western part of the island, but seldom cross a line drawn 
from the mouth of the Tji Tanduwi, in the Gulf of 
Cheribon. Their headquarters are the Residency of 
Preanger, but they overflow thence into the province of 
Batavia, the district of Krawang, and the southern portion 
of Cheribon. 

The Madurese, who slightly outnumber the Sundanese, 

inhabit Madura, and form almost the entire population 

of Probolinggo and Besuki ; they are also numerous in 

Pasuruan. The Javanese occupy all the middle of the 

101 



102 JAVA 

island, from Cheribon to Surabaja, including Pasuruan, 
where they come into contact with the Madurese. 

We can hardly mention the Kalangs beside these three 
large groups. They form a mere handful, and they used 
to live a wandering life, drifting all over the island, until 
one of the last Sultans of Mataram, in the eighteenth 
century, tied them down to fixed localities, or reserva- 
tions, known as " Kalangans." The Kalangs are found 
throughout all Middle Java, but especially in the Vorsten- 
landen of Djokjakarta and Surakarta, where they live 
apart in villages of their own. Although their origin 
remains in obscurity, it has been the subject of the most 
fantastic legends, born of the imagination of the Java- 
nese, who sometimes represent them as born of the 
union of a princess and her own son, and sometimes 
as descended from a man and a dog, whose tomb may 
still be seen in the village of Praguman (in the Resi- 
dency of Samarang). Everywhere to-day these gipsies 
of the Far East have settled down to a sedentary life, 
and have become merchants, coppersmiths, makers of 
rattan cord, coopers, &c. This latter trade they carry 
on to the profit of the prince, as compulsory labour. At 
Surakarta they are most usually wood-cutters, cabinet- 
makers, and carpenters. 

They adhere to certain characteristic usages in the 
event of a wedding or a funeral ; in which the dog 
appears to play a limited part, presumably totemic ; a 
fact which has given rise to the absurd accounts of 
their origin. Although certain ethnologists are inclined 
to proclaim their affinity with the Negritos of the Philip- 
pines, and although the populace even now pretend 
that they are often fitted with a caudal appendage, 1 and 
practise intercourse with their children, the Kalangs are 
in reality hardly to be distinguished from the Javanese, 

x A similar belief is held by a number of Asiatic peoples. The 
Annamites, for instance, are persuaded that certain mot's or savages 
of Indo-China are provided with tails. Respecting Tailed Men, 
see G. E. Gerini, " Researches on Ptolemy's Geography of Eastern 
India " (London, 1909), p. 687, No. 5, and Index. 



THE NATIVES OF JAVA 103 

whose language and dress they have adopted; they are 
nearly all circumcised Mahomedans, and frequent mar- 
riage is gradually absorbing them into the Javanese race. 

As a matter of fact, the Javanese, Sundanese, and 
Madurese appear to have formed one single race origin- 
ally, and to have evolved in slightly different directions, 
under different historical and climatic conditions. 

The Sundanese, the most sturdy of the three races, 
have the appearance, the virtues, and the faults of high- 
f landers. Taller, stronger, and more energetic than the 
Javanese, living in huts supported on piles, and addicted 
specially to agricultural labour, they belong to a civilisa- 
tion distinctly inferior to that of the Javanese. They are 
conscious of the fact, and are proud or servile according 
to the circumstances. In the cities, such as Batavia and 
Krawang, they tend to assimilate the Javanese civilisa- 
tion ; but in their mountains, where they live by agricul- 
ture or the chase, they have the name of being honest, 
loyal, subject to tradition, and of a deeply religious habit 
of mind ; although their Islamism, being modified by 
the memories and the rituals of bygone cults, is of a 
doubtfully orthodox type. But outwardly they have been 
far less influenced than the Javanese by the Hindu and 
Arab civilisations ; their rude language is far poorer in 
Sanscrit terms than the Javanese tongue, and in Persian 
or Arabic words than Malay. In the valley of the Tji 
Udjung there is even a small group of Sundanese who 
profess a kind of animism, barely touched by vague 
Buddhistic beliefs. 

While the Sundanese are tending towards absorption 
by the Javanese, the Madurese are successfully retaining 
their rugged and forceful characteristics. The Dutch 
regard them as among their best, though not perhaps 
their more tractable colonists. The native of Madura, 
sometimes a merchant, more often an agricultural 
labourer, is headstrong, vindictive, over-ready to draw 
his krees ■ to avenge the slightest insult, little amenable 

1 At one time it became necessary to forbid the Madurese to carry 
arms, on account of their hastiness in using them. 



104 JAVA 

to advice, and always impatient of the yoke. On the 
other hand, he is laborious, frugal, and has more 
foresight than the other natives of the Archipelago ; 
and with these virtues goes the spice of parsimony and 
surliness which commonly accompanies them. He 
allows no one to infringe his rights, nor to subject 
him to any accusation which seems to him unjustified ; 
he has a horror of enforced labour, yet he acquits him- 
self more fully than any one in Java of his debts toward 
the Government in kind, money, and the corvee. His 
loyalty is well tried, if not demonstrative ; but he is 
grateful to his European masters for having introduced 
a reign of security, so that he can till his field in peace. 
He has the name of being a good Mahomedan. 

II. 

The Javanese, of the three races, is the slightest in 
build, the most graceful, the most cultivated and sociable. 
The Javanese represents two factors which take prece- 
dence of all the elements of the island life : the factor 
of numbers and that of a more refined civilisation. 
Although his mentality has been enfeebled by long 
centuries of servitude and chronic poverty under greedy 
and despotic Governments, conditions from which it is 
barely beginning to recover, the Javanese possesses 
the memory of a glorious past, which results in a feeling 
of pride untouched by the shadow of sedition. He has 
also retained a really open mind, a remarkable faculty of 
assimilation, and the complex and exquisite politeness of 
a man of ancient race, who may have lost his preroga- 
tives, yet retains his air of being good company. He 
renders every man his due, while he himself is ready to 
feel deeply wounded if any one subjects him to uncalled- 
for rudeness. 

III. 

Agriculturists by destiny, and passionate lovers of 
their soil, the majority of the Javanese live in villages or 



THE NATIVES OF JAVA 105 

kampongs, 1 which, considered as social and administra- 
tive units, are also called dessa. These villages may 
contain from thirty to five hundred inhabitants. In the 
towns the Javanese, like all other natives, as well as the 
Chinese and Arabs, flock together and live to themselves, 
thus forming a special quarter, which in turn is often 
subdivided into many sections by the various bodies of 
trade craftsmen, who foregather and live together. The 
Javanese kampong nearly always has the appearance of a 
beautiful grove of coco and other palms, which shelter 
the slightly-built wooden huts, which indeed are hidden 
from view at a short distance. In the midst of the 
well-kept and slightly formal plantations which surround 
it on every side, the kampong has the look of a 
piece of woodland ; slightly thinned, but picturesque 
in its very irregularities. Some are still surrounded 
by a palisade of interlaced bamboos, which marks the 
limits of the village, and constitutes an outer defence ; but 
the majority to-day are open, and the houses are sur- 
rounded by hedges of bamboos, or sometimes of coffee- 
trees, which serve the purpose of effectually dividing the 
enclosures, while the outer sides of the hedges, being 
continuous, enclose the entire village. The Sundanese, 
in their mountain hamlets, still build their houses on 
piles ; but the Javanese are content to build them upon 
beaten earth, which is slightly raised, and serves as the 
floor of the house when the latter is completed. When 
this precaution is omitted the soil remains damp, sticky, 
and extremely insanitary. The Javanese custom of beat- 
ing the soil is attributed to Hindu influence, as this style 
of construction is usual in India. The langgars, however, 
or domestic oratories, are commonly built on piles. 

We must not expect from the Javanese dwelling any 
great variety or elegance of form. In the tropics, and 
especially in countries where the natives live largely out 

1 Kampong signifies both " quarter " and " village " ; it is a collec- 
tion of dwellings. Dessa includes the inhabitants, their dwellings 
and the political community which they represent. Dessa is the 
Sanscrit desa = place, region, country. 



106 JAVA 

of doors, and often move from place to place, the house 
is not a matter of great importance. It has no chimney ; 
the smoke escapes as it can. There are practically no 
windows, or none as we understand the term ; light 
enters the house usually by the door, or through the 
loosely-wattled walls of bamboo, except where the inter- 
stices are filled with leaves ; so that even at noon the 
native hut is dark, and the smoke takes one by the throat. 
The Javanese endure the smoke with exemplary patience, 
regarding it as the best defence against the superabun- 
dant mosquitoes. With this object, indeed, a small fire is 
always kept burning in the Javanese hut ; and on cold 
nights the natives sleep on their mats beside the fire. 
The Javanese house never contains an upper story ; 
occasionally, but only in the houses of the more pros- 
perous natives, there may be a small granary for maize, 
situated between the ceiling and the ridge-pole of the 
roof. Built of teak, "wild-wood," the wood of the coco- 
palm (glugu), or bamboo, according to the locality, and 
roofed with shingles, alang-alang, 1 or nipah-thztch, 2 the 
light and simple dwellings of the natives have nothing to 
fear from the earthquakes, which in this volcanic region 
are so frequent. In the case of prosperous householders 
the dwelling usually consists of three distinct structures, 
each with a roof whose ridge-pole turns upward at the 
extremities ; and the three buildings are often connected 
by means of corridors. 

The first structure is the pandopo (pendopo, pendoppo), 
in which guests are received, meetings held, and feasts 
are given. The central part is the pringitan ; there guests 
who are stopping the night or making a stay are accom- 
modated, and there on certain occasions the wayang will 
give its performances ; the third structure is the omah, 
reserved for the members of the family ; this is the actual 

1 Alang-alang (Javanese), or lalang (Malay), the Imperata arun- 
dinacea Cyrill. 

2 Nipa fruticans Wurmb. (Palms). The term atap is given to the 
alang-alang as well as to the leaves of the nipah when these materials 
are used for roofing purposes, 



THE NATIVES OF JAVA 107 

dwelling-house. To the left, as a rule, of the pringitan, in 
an annex covered by the same roof, is the kitchen, the 
bath-room, and a small apartment used for grinding 
rice. Behind this building is the byre for the buffalo and 
the cows, and further still in the rear the horses are 
stabled. To the right of the pringitan is the big granary 
for the rice, the door of which is above the level of the 
ground ; behind it, and farther away, is the langgar 
(oratory) where the Koran is taught to the children, and 
to which the women are admitted from time to time in 
order to offer up their prayers. 

Among the peasants the house consists of two parts 
only : the pandopo, which serves the purpose of the 
pringitan ; the otnah, where the family lives, and which 
serves also as the kitchen, and a storehouse for the imple- 
ments of field labour. In these two primitive types of 
habitation the Javanese, whose love of specialisation 
knows no limits, profess to distinguish four architectural 
types, in which there are certain differences of ornamen- 
tation, dimensions, and material ; and these four types 
may themselves be sub-divided into eight or ten varieties, 
all having individual names ; it is, in short, a case of a 
great deal of sublety for a very slight difference. 

Compared with the house, the furniture is rudimentary. 
There are wooden bed-frames, mats of every form, colour, 
and value, the uses of which are innumerable ; vessels of 
various kinds in baked clay and in copper ; kitchen utensils, 
articles for table use, tea-service and tray, sirih sets, 1 
cushions, screens, coffers to hold clothing, lamps of 
earthenware and metal, including, in the houses of chiefs, 
the modern hanging type ; porcelains, baskets, panniers of 
woven bamboo, fishing and hunting gear, agricultural 
implements, &c. The numbers of objects, the quantity 
of metal employed, and the fineness of the work are, 
as everywhere, proportioned to the wealth of the 
owner. 

x These contain all that is required for the preparation of the betel- 
nut for chewing. Such sets are made in gold, silver, copper, or 
simply in plaited cane or reeds. In Malay betel is called sirih. 



108 JAVA 

Thus built and furnished, and fronting on a few flower- 
beds, square plots of kitchen herbs and vegetables, 
surrounded by fruit-trees, mangoes, coco-palms, bananas, 
and separated from the road and from its neighbours by 
a thick hedge, most often of bamboos, the Javanese 
dwelling-house has a cheerful, primitive aspect, and a 
certain air of being only a temporary shelter. 

A group of several alleys of such houses constitutes a 
village, in the centre of which is the aloun-aloun, a small 
open stretch of turf, where the market is held. The 
house of the chief or headman of the kampong generally 
overlooks the market-place. A drum which serves to 
mark the hours informs the villagers of the flight of 
time, or warns them in case of alarm. There they live 
in peace under the order of a chief elected by themselves : 
the only political right which has been left for them to 
exercise. 1 He governs them according to the principles 
of a law admitted by all : the adat> which is a mass of 
old customs and racial traditions. This law, which must 
not be confounded with Mahomedan religious law, is often 
opposed to it, and only gives way to it in matters purely 
theological or questions of ritual. The adat } or custom, 
and the cheriat y or religious law, and the suzerainty of the 
Dutch, exercised through the intermediary of the native 
aristocracy, are the three ruling forces in the social and 
political life of Java. 

In the event of conflict among themselves the natives 
are judged, under the supervision of an European judge, 
by a native judge, whose duty it is to explain and apply 
the law of custom, or adat. It goes without saying that 
in cases where the law of custom would violate the 
humanitarian principles of the Europeans, the Dutch 
official would intervene in order to soften it somewhat, 
and a sentence is never pronounced without his approval. 
As a matter of fact it is always he who delivers the final 

1 The election must be ratified by the Dutch Resident, who at 
need rejects persons of infirm health, smokers of opium (hemp ?), 
notorious misers, and in general those who are mentally or morally 
or physically deficient. 



THE NATIVES OF JAVA 109 

judgment, although through the medium of the native 
judges or chiefs. 

In the event of litigation between natives and Euro- 
peans, and in cases in which the European has committed 
the offence, the latter is subject only to the Dutch police 
and the Dutch law, but the latter takes into account the 
manner in which the defendant has violated the law of 
adat. 

It is a curious thing that the natives of this country, 
despite the wave of Buddhism once swept over it, and 
notwithstanding their usually gentle character, are un- 
feeling where animals are concerned ; excepting as regard 
the buffalo, the indispensable companion of their labours, 
and the game-cock, the instrument of pleasure and of 
gain. 

IV. 

The family in Java is very firmly united. A keen 
affection binds the Javanese to his own. Extremely 
prolific — to judge by the alarming increase of the popu- 
lation, the most prolific father in the world — the number 
of his children does not decrease the strength of his 
affection. Long accustomed to a happy-go-lucky ex- 
istence, and to poverty, the increase of his family gives 
him none of the bitter anxiety of our modern proletariat. 
It costs so little to live in Java that the children will 
always have enough to eat; and,* as in India, fecundity 
and sterility are regarded as the especial marks of God's 
approval or displeasure. Sons and daughters alike, the 
Javanese father treats his children with the greatest 
tenderness ; caressing them often, protecting them from 
harm; and in return the children manifest the greatest 
deference to their parents, and where needful support 
them and see to all their needs, so that the law has no 
need to intervene. Such behaviour is prompted both by 
the adat and their own hearts. Although the religious 
law permits polygamy, the Javanese leaves the practice to 
the wealthy and eminent ; regents, vizirs (j>atih), or even 



110 JAVA 

district chiefs or headmen (wedonos) ; but even these, in 
imitation of the Europeans, are tending to limit them- 
selves to monogamy, at least officially. Thus poverty on 
the one hand and snobbery on the other, despite the 
influence of Hinduism and the Musulman law, are 
uniting to restore the women of Java to the place which 
is due to them, and which will make for the better progress 
of the race. The adat, in this particular, has exercised 
an excellent influence ; the moral and material situation 
of woman among the Malayo-Polynesians has always 
been a high one, the matriarchate, with all its conse- 
quences, having for a long period been the basis of Malay 
society, and among the Negri Sambilan of the Peninsula 
it is still practised. 

This is why, in spite of Islam, the Javanese woman 
goes abroad unveiled, shares the interests of her husband 
has her place at festivals, and speaks freely at home. Both 
wife and husband, moreover, so continually work side by 
side that this community of labour strengthens the position 
of the Javanese woman, although this does not equal that 
of her European sisters. 

The Javanese marry early, and celibacy is as unknown 
as it is inconvenient. Where the daughter is of nubile 
age — say twelve or fourteen — and the boy about sixteen, 
the parents begin to confer with a view to discussing their 
union. It is only after the parents have agreed that the 
two young people are allowed to see one another. Then, 
although the bridegroom's consent is necessary, that of 
the daughter is not indispensable. It is true that the 
affection of the parents nearly always modifies the rigour 
of the law upon this point. A pledge of betrothal, con- 
sisting of jewels and food, is then offered by the boy's 
parents to the girl's, who also receive, a few days later, the 
" price of purchase " of the bride, or the tumhassan, com- 
posed of silver, household utensils, or furniture, cloth and 
other stuffs for clothing, rice and game, the quantities 
varying with the rank of the betrothed couple. To these 
is added a special present for the parents. On the day 
when these presents are received the parents of the two 



i- * 






'""? - >*^*/\ , , k| 




^ 1? wr 




s 

o 
o 

3 
w 
p 



THE NATIVES OF JAVA 111 

young people are expected to send to all their relatives, 
friends, and superiors — one might almost say to every 
inhabitant of the village — a small present of food and an 
invitation to attend the family gathering, which will last 
for one or for several days, spent alternately in the houses 
of the boy's and the girl's parents. A marriage in Java, 
as among all races whose manners are still simple, cannot 
take place without repeated banquets, which nearly ruin 
the young couple and their parents, but which leave 
them, at least, the consolation of regaling themselves 
as generously at the very next marriage of a member of 
the community. 

The night preceding the wedding must be passed in 
vigil by the future spouses, or some great unhappiness 
will overtake them. On the following day the wedding 
is celebrated in the mosque according to the customary 
ritual of Islam. The bridegroom, in resplendent cloth- 
ing, his face rouged, surrounded by all his relatives and 
friends, preceded by strident music, proceeds to the 
mosque, while the girl, who is confined to the house, is 
represented at the mosque by her wait, or tutor. Then, 
having re-entered his own house, the young bridegroom 
exchanges his court dress for another costume, which is 
often as rich, but less solemn in effect, and proceeds with 
due ceremony with all his attendants to the wife's home, 
where she awaits him, decked in her finest raiment, 
rouged and painted, the upper part of the body and the 
arms bare, and well rubbed with boreh. 1 - 

To symbolise her complete submission to her husband, 
she washes his feet, and is then led by him, in procession, 
to the home of her new relations, where a well-covered 
table awaits the invited guests. On the following day 
another feast is held at the house of the bride's parents ; 
on the third day the young people have the right to with- 
draw and settle down in their own house, if they have 
one ; sometimes, despite the gorgeous clothing and the 

1 A mixture of saffron and poppy oil, which is employed in Java 
to stain the upper part of the body yellow, that portion being left 
bare on certain solemn, occasions. 



112 JAVA 

sumptuous feasts, they are too poor to possess a home 
of their own, in which case they settle down with the 
wife's parents until they have found the means of pro- 
curing a separate house. 



As Java is nothing else than a vast plantation of rice, 
coffee, sugar-cane, tea, quinine, indigo, &c, the Javanese 
native leads a purely agricultural existence. He devotes 
himself especially to the cultivation of rice ; for while 
other crops yield him a little profit and his masters a 
very large one, it is the rice-crop alone that nourishes 
him. Rice is his staple, indispensable food ; and it is 
a common saying that if, upon rising from the most 
copious banquet, the Javanese has had his accustomed 
allowance of rice, he will declare that he has not eaten. 

The cultivation of rice, be it said, is no easy task. 
In transplanting rice the native works all day knee- 
deep in slippery mud, which is rich in noxious gases, 
and the home of the deadly mosquito ; while at the 
period of harvest he is forced to work for days 
together in a stooping position, as the ears are cut off 
by hand, instead of being reaped with a scythe, as 
corn is harvested in England. 

The industries arising from the chief crops of Java 
■ — the preparation of tobacco, tea, indigo, and coffee, 
and the manufacture of sugar, which have made great 
strides since the extension of the system of free labour 
— employ considerable numbers of natives. They are 
docile and skilful, but one can hardly say that they 
are always energetic. 

The Javanese, according to general testimony, is not 
a born worker. He can live on a handful of rice and 
a little fruit, which diet he can obtain without effort, 
almost by the mere fertility of the soil. As his desires 
are practically limited to the bare means of sub- 
sistence, he would prefer to limit his labour. He would 
rather diminish his requirements and at the same time 



THE NATIVES OF JAVA 113 

his exertions than to labour with a view to creating 
new necessities and to gratify them. This philosophy, 
however it may disarm the psychologist, is, we must 
admit, extremely irritating to the colonist, and in 
absolute contradiction to the feverish activity of the 
West. Perhaps we should attribute the very real 
apathy of the Javanese, as of many other Asiatics, 
to the fact that he has laboured incessantly for 
centuries, but never for himself. He is, therefore, 
not indifferent to the soil, to which indeed he is 
passionately attached, but he is weary of fruitless 
labour. When he is able clearly to understand the 
evils to which his lack of foresight may expose him, 
and is convinced of the possibility of enjoying the 
fruits of his own labour, there is a probability that 
he will bring to that daily labour the enthusiasm of 
which he so often gives proof in matters of his own 
intellectual development. 

Besides cultivating his rice-field and his little orchard, 
the Javanese habitually increases his store of food and 
of money by fishing and hunting. Hunting, however, 
plays a much smaller part in his life than fishing, 
provided that he lives near the coast or some large 
river. There are several reasons for this ; hunting is 
nearly always harder work, and more uncertain than 
fishing ; moreover, the dense cultivation of the soil 
in Java has made game less plentiful than it used to 
be; and the laws of Islam forbid the consumption of 
the flesh of certain animals. 

The hunting of the larger wild animals has diminished 
because many of them have become rare, and because, 
for instance, the natives have noticed that where the 
tigers and other large cats are hunted too vigorously, 
the plantations are overrun by herbivorous animals, but 
by pigs in especial, to the great detriment of the crops. 
Finally, some of the native princes, and even some of 
the regents, reserve for themselves the trophies of 
tiger — or leopard — hunting, in order to keep them in 
their menageries, or to preserve them for the wild- 

9 



114 JAVA 

beast fights with which they still, though less often 
than of old, enliven their principal feasts or receptions. 

The larger animals are hunted most of all in the 
Preangers, where they are most plentiful and most 
dangerous. The natives try to take them alive in 
heavy traps, the principle of which is very much that 
of a rat-trap ; in this way some of the finest tigers 
find their way to the special quarters in the palaces 
of the Sultan of Djokjakarta or the Susuhunan of 
Surakarta, where they are kept in reserve for some 
future festival ; but the greater number are drowned 
in their traps, which are carried to the nearest river, 
in order that the beasts may be killed without damage 
to their skins. Tigers are also taken by many other 
means. 

For every tiger killed the hunter receives a Govern- 
ment bounty ; and the skin, deprived of its teeth, 
claws, and whiskers, which the native regards as a 
very powerful fetish, and one for which he will pay 
a considerable price, is also sold on the spot for a 
very fair price. Some skins are sent to Europe ; but 
the greater number remain in the Archipelago, where 
they are employed in the making of rugs and saddlery 
and for decorative purposes; unfortunately the process 
by which they are tanned is usually so unsuccessful 
that, under the influence of insects and the damp, such 
articles quickly lose their lustre and their value. 

Although there are no wild elephants in Java, there 
are herds of rhinoceros, which gradually decrease as 
the uncultivated tracts of the island are reclaimed. 
The Javanese kill them all the more willingly because 
the hide of a rhinoceros will often fetch more than 
200 florins (over ^16) on the spot. The natives eat 
the flesh, and the horns are sold at a high price to 
the Chinese, who believe them to possess remarkable 
medicinal and restorative qualities. The Javanese them- 
selves believe that a little disc of rhinoceros horn 
applied to a serpent's bite will neutralise the venom ; 
the hide serves to make whips and switches ; while 



THE NATIVES OF JAVA 115 

the Chinese sometimes carve the horns, mount them 
on a base, and send them to Europe. The Javanese, 
in order to avoid injuring the hide, always prefer to 
snare the rhinoceros rather than shoot it. 

The wild pig abounds in Java. The principal species 
are, the widjung, or " coffee-pig " (Sus vittatus), whose 
flesh is excellent eating, and the gonteng of the moun- 
tains, called zvraha in the plains, or " callous swine " 
(Sus verrucosus), which is far less highly appre- 
ciated. In order to protect their crops, and on 
account of its ferocity, the Javanese hunt the pig 
relentlessly ; they do not, however, gain much by the 
sport, as their religion forbids them to eat the flesh 
of swine, which is accordingly left to the Chinese. 
In some of the mountain regions, however, this law 
is less strictly observed, and the dried flesh, cut into 
thin slices, and sold under the name of dendeng, 1 finds 
plenty of consumers who do not boggle over its 
origin. The great wild buffalo, or banteng (Bos son- 
daicus), which is shot and eaten on the spot, is a 
profitable quarry, as its hide, horns, and hooves are 
employed in the manufacture of a large number of 
articles for every-day use or for exportation. 

Deer (rusa) are almost as plentiful as wild pigs, and 
are hunted even more eagerly. The dried venison, or 
dendeng y is a staple article of commerce in the Archi- 
pelago ; the horns and hide are utilised in various 
industries. The young antlers, still covered with a 
mossy skin, are also bought at a fair price by the 
Chinese, who regard their fortifying virtues to be even 
superior to those of the rhinoceros horn. The dried 
tendons are also secured for the tables of the wealthy, 
and are even exported to China ; they are used in the 
manufacture of a succulent sweetmeat. 

Stag-hunting, whether undertaken with the rifle or 
with hounds, is a passion which the Europeans share 
with the natives. The result is a gradual but percep- 

x All dried meat, whether seasoned with spices or not, is called 
dendeng in Java. 



116 JAVA 

tible decrease in the numbers of the deer, which one 
no longer sees, as the great naturalist Junghuhn saw 
them on the Iyen in i86o ; in herds to the number of 
many thousands. The roe deer, which are very abundant, 
are valued especially for their flesh. 

Among the cetaceans the sea-cow or dugong, duyong 
(Halicore Dujong), is eaten with enjoyment by the 
natives, 1 who also hunt the cachalot (ikan lodan), 
principally for its teeth, which are made into krees- 
handles. Both these mammalia are more common in 
the Outer Possessions than about Java. 

Many Javanese birds are greatly prized, either for 
their plumage or for their flesh. The peacock is eaten, 
as is the wildfowl, the duck, the plover, the wood- 
cock (which at certain periods is very abundant in 
the western part of the island, and is taken alive), the 
dlimangan or tre, a quail, which is sometimes trained 
to fight, and also doves and pigeons, which are greatly 
esteemed both for their flesh and their song, and are 
found in almost every Javanese dwelling, where their 
soothing voices break the midday silence. 

Certain pigeons, parakeets, cockatoos, kingfishers, 
doves, sri-gunting (Edolius fortificatus), and birds of 
paradise are caught by the net or by liming, instead 
of being shot, as their plumage is the object of an 
important export trade with China and Europe. 

As for snakes, the Javanese eat their flesh, but have 
hitherto made little use of their skins. Now, however, 
a demand is springing up in Europe for the latter, 
which are used in the fabrication of purses, card-cases, 
pocket-books, &c. 

All things being considered, however, the native gains 
more by his fisheries than by hunting. Fish literally 
swarm in the Javanese seas and rivers, and of the 
hundreds of species caught there are very few that are 
not of use for edible or other purposes. 

The king of the fresh-water fish is the gurami (Ospho- 

1 Syn. Dugongy perampuwan laut (in Malay, sea-woman, mer- 
maid). 



THE NATIVES OF JAVA 117 

mentis olfax), which is reserved for the tables of 
chiefs or the wealthy, and is reared for the market in 
special fish-ponds or tanks. A gurami of 20 to 30 
pounds' weight is always a welcome present in the 
Dutch Indies. Natives, Europeans, and Chinese all 
appreciate it equally ; but Europeans prefer to eat it 
while quite young, and weighing only 3 pounds 
or less. It reminds one of a perch, and belongs to 
the same family, but has a more distinct flavour. 
Among the anabas we must mention the betek, or 
climbing perch, which is able, thanks to a peculiar 
cellular structure, to leave the water for short periods 
of time, when it climbs up the roots of the trees 
growing in the marshes, and there obtains a plentiful 
harvest of insects. Then there is the gabus, an article 
of the greatest importance throughout all Java, where 
it is consumed more especially as ikan kring — that is, 
in the dried state — while the Dutch prefer to eat it 
newly caught ; the bayong, which is rather less fat 
than the gabas, and which seldom attains a weight 
of more than 4J pounds. It is very abundant and is 
also eaten in the dried state. Many varieties of carp 
are carefully reared in enormous fish-ponds for sale 
to the Dutch and the Chinese; one species, the 
tambra, is reared especially for the Chinese and the 
natives. There are also various species of eels and 
conger ; marsh lampreys, which are reared for the 
tables of the Europeans ; numbers of mud-fish (silures) 
which seem to issue from the earth when the rice- 
fields are inundated, so plentiful are they, and which 
the natives obtain for next to nothing, even in the 
markets. These fish are all nourishing and of an 
excellent flavour. 

The sea-fisheries are naturally undertaken by the sea- 
board populations. The most valued of all the salt- 
water fish, though not the most abundant, is the kakap ; 
next comes the roto, which is far less readily caught. 
There are various kinds of mackerel, including the tunny, 
which is eaten either fresh or preserved ; still more 



118 JAVA 

numerous varieties of the herring, the best of which is 
the bandeng; and finally the trubuk, the Indian or long- 
tailed shad, which is caught chiefly off the eastern coast 
of Sumatra, but which is also found on the Javanese 
coast ; the salted roe of which is a condiment highly 
valued, even by some Europeans. 

The necessity of overcoming the monotony of per- 
petual rice and facilitating its digestion, and the natives' 
custom of eating a certain amount of their meat and 
most of their fish in a smoked, dried, or salted condition, 
explains the common use in Java, as in nearly all 
countries of the Far East, of those animal and vegetable 
condiments whose ingredients and odour are nearly 
always so violently repugnant to the European. 

The condiments most usually employed in Java among 
the better class of natives are : ikan gerek, a paste made 
of various small fishes, kneaded up with salt, "Spanish 
pepper/' * and various spices, which is packed in baskets, 
in which it gradually becomes of a firmer consistency ; 
trassi, or terasi, a paste of prawns, shrimps, or small 
fishes, brayed together with salt and spices ; ebbi, or 
dried prawns and river crayfish, which are exported as 
far as China. To these complementary aliments the 
Javanese are fond of adding the salted eggs of the duck, 
hen, or turtle (telor asin), and the shad's roe, or trubuk. 
As for trepang, or beche de mer 2 (the holothure, or sea- 
cucumber), which crawls in enormous numbers along 
the sea-bottoms of Java, the natives eagerly carry on this 
fishery, but as a means of making money, for they do not 

1 Dutch : Spaansche peper. This is the Capsicum annuum L., or 
annual pepper, better known in France as Indian pepper, or long 
pepper. 

2 Or beech-de-tner, from the Portuguese bicho- de-mar, " sea- worm/ 
or sea-slug ; the zee-komkommer, or sea-cucumber of the Dutch. 
The price per picul (a weight of 133 lb.) varies from 2 florins 50 to 
170 florins, according to the locality and the quality. In China, the 
great market for this merchandise, the price runs from 50 to 275 
florins, and the picul contains from 1,000 to 2,000 sea-slugs. The 
Dutch Indies produce and export to China about 700 tons per 
annum. 



THE NATIVES OF JAVA 119 

eat them any more than do the Europeans. Boiled, 
salted, and then dried or smoked, they are exported to 
China, where they fetch a high price. Thousands of the 
seaboard Javanese live by the trepang fishery alone. 

The shell of the turtle (Chclonia imbricata) is almost 
entirely exported to Europe and to China ; but the shell 
of the common tortoise {tutrugu) is often sent to Sura- 
baja, where it is made into combs, boxes, spoons, &c. 

To the abundant natural resources of his island the 
Javanese may add the industry of stock-raising. It is 
true that his lack of care and foresight has limited the 
numbers of his flocks and herds and has failed to improve 
the breeds of his domestic animals. 

The most useful beast of all from the native's point of 
view is the kerbau (Malay), or kebo (Javanese) ; the buffalo, 
so powerful yet so gentle, which drags the heaviest bur- 
dens with a sure foot over the miry roads or the stony 
mountain trails; the buffalo, which shares his labours; 
the buffalo whose meat, if a little musky, is excellent 
whether fresh or salted. The native prefers the buffalo 
above all the domestic animals ; the bullock (sapi, or 
lembu), less vigorous but more active, is still better as a 
draught animal on a good road, and its meat is far 
sweeter ; the cow is regarded purely as a reproductive 
animal, as the Javanese dislikes milk and its various 
products ; the goat and the sheep are kept more for the 
sake of their meat than for any any other purpose ; and 
pigs are fed only for sale to the Chinese. 

The horse (kuda in Malay, dyaran or kapal in Javanese) 
is a favourite animal, but is not methodically bred or 
cared for, and has consequently degenerated. Formerly 
it was used solely as a saddle- or pack-horse. The 
Europeans have taught the Javanese the art of breaking 
it to go in harness and to draw burdens, but in order to 
preserve the species have forbidden them to kill it for the 
sake of its flesh. The horses of Preanger, which have an 
obvious Arab strain, are the tallest in the island and 
are well proportioned, but otherwise cannot be highly 
praised. Those of Kedu, which have been improved by 



120 JAVA 

the care of the Susuhunans, are their rivals in height 
and are still better proportioned ; but the ordinary 
Javanese horse of the sawahs (rice-fields) or the moun- 
tains is small and ugly, but sure-footed and enduring. 
It is certain that if the Javanese native would refrain 
from working his horse too young, and would feed it in 
a rational manner, he would be able to improve the race 
and derive from it incalculable benefits. 



VI. 

Just as the Javanese, despite his love of the soil, prefers 
to cultivate only so much of it as will satisfy his daily 
needs, so his industry also is limited to his requirements. 
Each village has its blacksmith, its carpenter, and very 
often its potter and silversmith. The trade guilds in the 
towns may contain a certain number of workers in each 
trade, but they will be careful to produce only enough to 
supply the usual demand, and will work only according 
to tradition. It is no lack of taste nor of ability that 
keeps them to these beaten tracks ; their chiselled and 
sculptured gold and silver work is often excellent, and 
the women who work at the looms are real artists. The 
two industries which are peculiar to the Javanese, and in 
which their originality is most plainly shown, are the 
manufacture of the krees, 1 the value of which depends 

1 The kriss, or krees, is the characteristic arm of the Malay races. 
It must not be confounded with the other forms of sword or dagger 
used in the Archipelago. There are more than a hundred kinds of 
krees, each bearing a different name according to the shape of the 
blade, guard, and scabbard. The blade, which is commonly 12 to 
16 inches in length and always flat, is straight or serpentine in 
form, and is usually damascened with pamor, a magnetic iron which 
comes from Luwu (south of Celebes) : this treatment gives the 
blade a moire, or watered, surface. The grip, or hilt, made of wood, 
horn, ivory, or metal, assumes the most fantastic forms ; in the case 
of a prince's or wealthy noble's krees it will be ornamented with 
precious stones. The scabbard is of wood and covered with a 
sheath of suwasa (bronze), silver, or gold. The krees is not merely 
an arm, but a symbol of rank and authority as well, as the sword 



THE NATIVES OF JAVA 121 

upon the temper of the weapon and the material and 
carving of the handle, and the ornamentation of stuffs 
by the batik or battek process. The art of plaiting and 
weaving and staining mats of every size and shape and 
intended for all manners of purposes is also a widespread 
Javanese industry; but it is not peculiarly Javanese, being 
common to most peoples of the Far East, while kreesses 
and batiks I in cloth coloured through a mask or ground 
of wax are exclusively Javanese industries. 

To batik signifies to cover a cotton fabric with a thin 
ground of wax before plunging it into a bath of dye, so 
as to preserve from the latter certain parts of the stuff, 
thus forming a design. This operation, repeated several 
times in succession, but with a dye of different colour on 
each occasion and with the stuff re-coated so as to pre- 
serve different portions from the dye, finally produces a 
design which is often of real artistic value. The batik- 
maker — and this delicate work is always done by women 
— is provided with a tyanting, or a little cup or funnel of 
the thinnest sheet-copper, which is filled with white wax 
in a melted condition. This wax she allows to trickle 
very slowly through a slender tube, as fine as the point of 
a pen at its lower extremity. With the aid of this little 
instrument — which roughly resembles the funnels used 
for the sugar icing on wedding-cakes — the batiqueuse 
draws her design on the cotton fabric in a line of warm 
and liquid wax ; the width of the line being varied by 

was in Europe during the Middle Ages, and was in Japan within 
living memory. It is worn in various manners, which are regulated 
by etiquette. For further details see the article Wapens der 
inlandsche Bevolking (Encycl. v. Ned.-Indie, vol. iv. p. 686 et seq.). 

1 The Javanese word batik, " to design, trace, paint," has assumed 
the technical meaning " to draw upon a cotton cloth with molten 
wax." It is an ingenious process, by means of which coloured 
stuffs of many colours and a remarkable variety of designs are pro- 
duced. The following work, illustrated with coloured plates repre- 
senting some of the finest specimens, includes all possible informa- 
tion as to the batik industry in Java : G. P. Rouffaer and Dr. H. H. 
Juynboll, De batik-kunst in Nederlandsch-Indie en haar gescheidenis 
(Haarlem, 1900-1905, large 4to). 



122 JAVA 

using a tyanting with a larger or smaller vent. When the 
worker has traced the design in wax upon one face of the 
cloth, she reproduces it by the same means upon the 
other face, so that the stuff has no "wrong side" and 
may be used with either side uppermost. The piece of 
cotton with its design in wax is now plunged into a vat 
containing a dye of suitable shade — usually a red, blue, 
or brown — which dyes all portions that are not covered 
by the waxen design. The wax is removed by means of 
boiling water ; and before plunging the cloth into a 
second vat containing dye of a different shade the 
design is continued by means of a fresh application of 
wax in all the necessary parts. By repeated applications 
of wax and repeated immersions in various dyes it is 
possible to obtain extremely complex designs, which 
possess a charm all their own and are gay and har- 
monious in colour. 1 

The batik process entails a traditional technical edu- 
cation and considerable taste on the part of the crafts- 
woman. There are hundreds of accepted batik designs, 
certain of which are reserved for certain articles of 
clothing or even for certain persons. The Susuhunan 
and the Sultan of the Vorstenlanden wear batiks of 
special design that no other native would dare to wear, 
at any rate in the Vorstenlanden themselves. More- 
over, Surakarta and Djokjakarta boast of what we may 
justifiably call schools of design and colouring, and 
their batiks compel the admiration of the best foreign 
connoisseurs. Samarang, although its batiks are rather 
more gaudy, still maintains the high reputation of 
its women artists, who elsewhere, and especially in 
Batavia, are now allowing themselves to be influenced 
by European taste, or rather by European commercial 

1 The Dravidians of the Coromandel coast (Tamils, Telingas, &c.) 
also prepare cloths of polychromatic design by the same procedure, 
a very faithful and detailed description of which has been preserved 
in the Letter of Pere Coeurdoux, missionary of the Company of 
Jesus, to Pere du Halde, of the same Company, January 18, 1742 
(Lettres edifiantes et curieuses, t. xxvi., Paris, 1743, p. 172 et seq.). 



THE NATIVES OF JAVA 123 

designs, which do not in the least represent the art of 
Europe, and are losing their originality. One of the 
causes of this decadence has been the introduction of 
printed calicoes with which the European houses have 
flooded the markets of Java. The natives, tempted by 
their low prices, have bought them, and have immediately 
set to work to imitate them, and by employing the 
simplest means they produce imitations equal to the 
European goods, but at a still lower price. The mer- 
chants, in consequence, have gained nothing by the 
transaction, but the delicate art of the batik has greatly 
suffered by the introduction of this rubbish. Already 
Cheribon and Indramaju have practically ceased to 
produce the batiks for which they were formerly so 
renowned, and which used to sell for as much as £4. the 
piece ; indeed, unless something is done to arrest the 
decadence of the process, these examples of a charming 
and consummate art will in fifty or sixty years' time be 
found only in the kratons of the princes and the cabinets 
of European collectors. 

The Javanese batik their cotton stuffs on one or both 
sides only for the very practical purpose of beautifying 
their garments. Their costume is simple, and is the 
same for both sexes, a fact which at first leaves the 
foreigner subject to awkward misunderstandings. The 
basis of the costume, indeed sometimes the whole 
costume, is the sarong; that is, a kind of skirt falling 
from the waist, or sometimes above it, to the feet. When 
open in front it is called the kain pandjang. Sarongs 
and skirts worn by the people are often of a deep blue 
colour ; among the rich, in the east and centre of the 
island, the stuff is batik' d; in the west it is often checkered 
or striped, the checks or stripes being woven in the stuff. 
Checks are common among the Sundanese. To the 
sarong } the man adds a sort of vest of white cotton 
(kutungan) or coloured cotton print, or a kind of short 
jacket of white cotton or print, with wide sleeves and 
a standing collar, fastened at the throat and loose on 
the hips. Native officials replace this by a cloth or cotton 



124 JAVA 

jacket with narrow sleeves, fastened up with buttons 
ornamented with a W and a crown. 

The man's long hair is done up in a chignon on the 
top of the head, and hidden by a kerchief, more or less 
artistically batik' d> the corners of which emerge like two 
wings on either side of the nape. As a defence against 
the sun or rain, the native often wears a wide hat of 
bamboo fibre or plaited pandanus leaf, either plain or in 
several bright colours. This hat may be more than a 
yard in diameter, when it forms an excellent substitute 
for an umbrella or parasol. Native dandies and officials 
replace this hat, in the towns, by a peaked cap, which 
is ornamented, in the case of the officials, by the W 
surmounted by a crown. 

The official headgear for state occasions is a kind of 
fez : a truncated cone, called a kuluk, covered with trans- 
parent starched muslin. In the case of princes the kuluk 
is ornamented with vertical stripes of gold, and is known 
as the kanigara. A krees, passed through the girdle and 
carried behind the left haunch, completes the toilet of 
every Javanese freeman. The krees, which the Madurese, 
and still more the Malay, will draw at the first word that 
he chooses to think insulting, is for the Javanese, as we 
have seen, primarily an ornament. 

Personages of high rank are always accompanied by 
a parasol (payong), their rank being denoted by its height, 
colour, and wealth of gold. Priests and Hadjis commonly 
wear the Arab costume, and thereby gain no little con- 
sideration ; but some Javanese wear it who have never 
been to Mecca. 

Women add to the sarong a wide bandage, of blue 
cloth upon ordinary occasions, but in batik on feast days. 
This is called the kemben, and is wound round the bust, 
under the arms, so as to flatten the breasts, a full bosom 
being unappreciated by the Javanese. Some women also 
wear the kutang, a kind of bodice or tunic, and still more 
frequently the kelambi, a kind of camisole, in dark blue 
cotton, black silk, or velvet of some dark shade, which 
is cut low at the neck. It falls to the knees, and the 



THE NATIVES OF JAVA 125 

narrow sleeves are closed with strings. An indispensable 
article of the feminine toilet is the slendang: a scarf in 
batik, often ornamented with fringes ; something over 
20 inches wide, in colour brown, green, or yellow, or, 
among the poorer classes, a deep blue. It is sometimes 
made of silk, sometimes of cotton, and serves for all 
kinds of purposes. The well-dressed woman wears it 
simply as an ornament ; the women of the people wear 
it across one shoulder, like a bandolier, and use it for 
carrying the last-born baby, the goods they have bought 
or are going to sell, and so on. 

The Javanese woman is always bareheaded in the 
presence of the Javanese man ; but she decks her hair 
with freshly plucked flowers or ornamental pins. Like 
the women of all countries, she loves necklaces, rings, 
and bracelets of all kinds, and heavy earrings of a peculiar 
type, which stretch the lobe of the ear to a mere thread. 
She shelters herself from the rain beneath an umbrella of 
oiled paper. 

Men and women go barefoot, including the native 
soldiers of the colonial army, excepting only the 
Amboinese. 1 

A few exquisites wear slippers or shoes of European 
model, and their use is becoming more and more general 
among the more distinguished natives, although all 
natives must appear barefooted at the courts of the 
Susuhunan and the Sultan ; and before such native 
notables as the regents, &c, all inferiors must appear 
with bare feet. 

VII. 

Although the life of a Javanese village is never intensely 
laborious it is, in a sense, a life of continuous labour ; 
for the Javanese does not feel compelled to abstain from 
labour entirely upon any day of the week — not even on a 
Friday — to satisfy his religious beliefs. He works as 

1 This is partly because so many of the Amboinese are Christians, 
and partly because they pretend to give their services in Netherlands 
India as allies, not as subjects ; as equals, not as a conquered race. 



126 JAVA 

long as he needs to work ; but only too often only just so 
long. Neither is his labour a melancholy affair ; for the 
severer agricultural tasks, such as the transplanting or 
harvesting the rice, are performed in common ; all the 
people of the dessa help one another, and enjoy a banquet 
at the end of all. Again, all the villagers share in the 
same pleasures ; no feast, marriage, or circumcision takes 
place without the presence of the whole village, or at 
least the majority of the inhabitants. 

These holidays are numerous, precisely because the 
Javanese is not fanatically fond of work. But they are 
not uproarious ; the traveller is always surprised to 
witness the heartfelt gaiety — a gaiety without shouting 
and screaming, without guffaws and shrieks of laughter — 
of this gentle and polished people. They are as quiet in 
their gaiety or their anger as the birds of their country, 
whose plumage is so beautiful, but which are almost 
songless. 

The people crowd through the bazaar or upon the 
aloun-aloun, but with a gentle, noiseless movement ; their 
inner satisfaction is only betrayed by the fact that their 
clothing is more ornamental than usual and their faces 
brighter. 

If Korea is entitled the Empire of the Quiet Morning, 
Java deserves the name of the Island of Silent Serenity. 

Among the habitual pleasures of the Javanese, tobacco 
(roko) and the betel-nut (sirih) have passed into the rank 
of necessities, so general is the use of these two stimu- 
lants, and particularly that of the latter. Betel is used by 
women as much as by men, and both use it continually. 
From the poorest coolie to the Susuhunan, every Javanese 
is always chewing this refreshing condiment, which 
blackens the teeth, however, and provokes an abundant 
flow of reddened saliva. At all domestic rejoicings the sirih 
is offered to all the guests ; and the accessories necessary 
to betel-chewing accompany the great wherever they go. 

The use of opium, which is by no means so harmless, 
has, unfortunately, been becoming more and more usual 
during the last twenty years. For this reason all those 




ac 
o 

o 

w 
> 

H 
O 

o 



THE NATIVES OF JAVA 127 

who concern themselves with the welfare of the natives 
are anxious that the Chinese should be forced to abandon 
the growth of the poppy in order to restrain the abuse of 
the drug. 1 

Dice, cards, quail- and cock-fights, 2 and tops with num- 
bered sides, on the stoppage of which bets are laid, are 
still favourite means of amusement with the Javanese 
native, who will sometimes, in the excitement of play, 
ruin himself within a few hours. We must not be 
surprised to find such amusements severely proscribed 
by the better classes of the natives, who are to-day so 
anxious to bring about a popular renascence ; but it will 
certainly be no easy task to wean the people from such 
amusements, as the native of almost every quarter of the 
Far East has a regrettable passion for games of chance. 

On the other hand, the Javanese of the people, more on 
account of his natural sobriety than out of religious 
scruple, is not addicted to fermented and alcoholic 
drinks ; he leaves them to the mighty and to the princes 
of his race, who, despite the precepts of the Koran, are 
not reluctant to imitate the European in this particular. 

Performances on the gamelan 3 and the representations 
of the wayang are the favourite amusements of the 
people, and on special occasions their chiefs and princes 
entertain them by means of their own troupes. 

1 Concerning opium and its use in the Dutch Indies, see E. 
Metzger, Das Opium in lndonesien (Rev. Col. intern. 1887, II., 
P- I 75) > J- L. Zegers, Het opium-vraagstuk in Nederlandsch Oost- 
Indie (Nimeguen, 1890). 

2 Officially prohibited in certain Residencies, they none the less 
continue in secret. 

3 The full gamelan appears to be a development of the xylophone. 
As we gather from M. Caboton's description, the basis of the gamelan 
is the ordinary xylophone ; in the full gamelan the note is produced 
by one of a series of blades, tubes, gongs, or basins. The illustration 
facing p. 127 shows a series of " xylophones " of different materials ; 
some having wooden notes, some slips of metal, some a series of tubes 
bedded in cushions, and some a series of bronze vessels not unlike 
square tureens. The word gamelan means sometimes a single "xylo- 
phone," sometimes a whole orchestra of " xylophones " of various 
materials, including gongs, suspended tubes, a viol, &c.— [Trans.] 



128 JAVA 

The gatnelan is a complete orchestra composed of an 
oblong plank of wood, supported on four legs, and 
with raised edges. Across this plank, and resting upon 
little cushions, are fixed a series of blades or slips of vary- 
ing lengths ; one set will be of wood, another of copper, 
others of bronze ; some will have affixed to them vertical 
tubes of bamboo, which serve as resonators. Each blade 
or slip gives out, when struck, a note consecutive to that 
produced by its neighbour. The gamelan may also in- 
clude a series of bronze basins, some wide and shallow, 
others deep and narrow ; or these may be replaced by 
suspended gongs. A viol with two strings and a bow, 
known as the rebab, is used to play the air when the 
gamelan accompanies the voice. All the instruments of 
the gamelan, which are struck by hammers of different 
materials, according to the tonality desired, and accord- 
ing to a very abstruse technique, produce a shrill and 
somewhat melancholy music, which is at first surprising 
to a foreign ear, but which is by no means without a 
charm of its own. 1 

At domestic gatherings in the villages the natives have 
usually to content themselves with the rebab (or viol), the 
flute, or with drums of various size, shape, and tone ; but 
when a chief entertains those under his administration at a 
wayang show, accompanied by the gamelan, the Javanese 
native passes a delightful evening ; but the entertain- 
ment, to be precise, often lasts far into the night. 

1 Other instruments which may be included in the gamelan are : 
angklung, or " sonorous tubular gongs, suspended in a framework," 
bonangy " a peal of bells/' tjelempung, " a psalterion," ketuk, kenong, 
" bells " ; saron, " a series of metallic tongues or blades " ; demung, 
" the same, but deeper in tone " ; gong, " a thick bamboo tube which 
is struck to obtain the bass note " ; kempul, " a little gong " ; kendang, 
" a drum, the two heads of which are of unequal diameters.'' Land, 
Notes sur la musique de Vile de Java, says that this music " is a 
subject well worth the serious interest of the musician." See also 
E. Dulaurier, Musique Javanaise. Notice sur un gamelan ou collection 
d instruments de musique javanaise, rapportee de Vile de Java a Paris, 
en 184s, in the Revue de V Orient, de V Alger ie et des Colonies, 17th year 
(Paris and Algiers, 1859). 



THE NATIVES OF JAVA 129 

The wayang is a puppet-show, a theatre of marionettes. 
The puppets are perfectly flat, with movable arms ; their 
faces and limbs are fantastically deformed — in order, say 
the Javanese, to evade the Musulman law, which forbids 
the reproduction of the human body. They are some- 
times made of buffalo hide, sometimes of wood, brightly 
painted and gilded, and often luxuriously dressed ; they 
are manipulated behind a screen upon which the light of 
a copper lantern throws their shadows. The women 
watch the drama from in front of the screen, the men 
from behind it, according to the position of the marion- 
ettes themselves. 

There are three kinds of wayang, which are not very 
clearly distinguished ; and a different tonality of the 
gamelan is appropriate to each. An actor recites the 
poem or drama which the marionettes perform, interrupting 
it considerably by long personal improvisations. In the 
best representations the subject is always borrowed from 
the Hindu epics of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, 
with the alterations and distortions for which the Javanese 
mind has been responsible during the centuries which 
have passed since the extinction of the Hindu faith ; or 
from the heroic and legendary history of Java before the 
foundation of the Empire of Madjapahit — that is, before 
the ninth century A.D. ; or sometimes, but more rarely, 
from the history of the aforesaid Empire. This choice 
shows how deeply the Hindu domination has im- 
pressed the Javanese mind. The part played by Islam in 
this dramatic literature is inconsiderable, and is usually 
limited to the confiscation of the miracles performed by 
the demi-gods of India to the profit of Allah ; and 
occasionally, especially during the last twelve years, the 
dalan, or reciter, improvises, between two lines of some 
traditional poem, some malicious reflection upon his 
European masters. 

When the wayang- is not available, the Javanese turns 
cheerfully to the topeng dalang, in which masked actors 
play in pantomime a drama which the dalan recites 
in a loud voice ; or sometimes the actors themselves 

10 



130 JAVA 

speak, and give their performances in the open, sur- 
rounded by a circle of auditors who hang upon their every 
word. They enjoy almost as naively the dances of the 
ronggengs — public dancing-girls — whose methods always 
astonish and disappoint the uninstructed European ; for 
the Javanese dance consists of a series of plastic and 
mimetic poses, which require, even more than Javanese 
music, a previous initiation on the part of a foreigner. 
Even at the bedayas of the sovereigns of the Vorstenlanden 
and a few of the regents, who preserve the implacable 
traditions of the classic dance, the foreigner is usually less 
pleased than astonished. 

WayangSy gamelans, dancers, and distributions of food 
and of betel form the regular programme of the fetes 
which the notables and the wealthy offer to the people on 
occasions which are as varied as they are numerous. 
The birthdays of the Queen-Mother and the Queen of 
Holland, and that of the little Princess Juliana, give the 
highly placed Javanese an opportunity of testifying his 
loyalty and of giving pleasure to the people. Other 
occasions for such festivals are : his appointment to any 
post under the Government ; his marriage ; the birth of 
his children ; the circumcision of his boys ; the declara- 
tion of the nubility of his daughters ; the marriage of a son 
or a daughter ; the filing of his teeth ; the conclusion of a 
lucky business affair ; the recovery from an illness ; the 
return from a journey ; the rice harvest ; the building of a 
house ; in short, the Javanese has a genius for discover- 
ing such occasions ; he finds them in the most trifling 
details of his life, and celebrates them with enthusiasm. 
On every step of the social ladder the Javanese rejoices at 
the festivals of his superiors : very often at those of his 
inferiors, when he wishes to honour the latter. The 
result is that although there are very few actual religious 
holidays, the Javanese is continually junketing ; a course 
which keeps him from his work, and is often absolutely 
ruinous. 

Very probably nearly all these festivals are of remote 
origin, some arising out of the Islamite code of manners j 



THE NATIVES OF JAVA 131 

adapted indifferently, they allow one to guess at a sur- 
viving basis in the ancient animistic cult of Java. They 
open with prayers recited by the imaum of the village, or 
in his absence by some person distinguished for his 
piety ; and one may suppose that their generic name of 
slamettans, or thanksgiving feasts, sanctifies the banquet 
which is the necessary accompaniment of the feast, and 
often its object. Adat (custom) has fixed the number, 
nature, quantity, and preparation of the sacrificial dishes, 
of which the spirits enjoy the subtile and the sacrificers 
the material portion. In the courts of the princes the 
religious character of the sacrificial repast offered to the 
spirits is accentuated by the care taken to reserve a portion 
of the dishes for the priests and santris (holy men). 

Generally the giver of a slamettan bears the whole cost ; 
but often he cannot afford to do so, when he will arrange 
with several friends to give the feast at their common 
expense. Each one performs his share by bringing one 
of the required courses, and the sacrificial feast becomes 
something like a picnic. The gamelan and the wayang 
which nearly always terminate the feast add to the joyful 
impression produced by the whole. 

We can understand why Javanese reformers are so 
anxious to put down the constant succession of slamettans, 
which empty the native's slender purse, and accustom 
him to idleness and imprudence. 

VIII. 

The Europeans, who in all their colonies are very loth 
to allow the natives any virtues, do not fail to criticise 
many other points of the Javanese character. 

Some reproach him roundly for his gentle manners, 
which to them seem to border upon cowardice ; for his 
incurable apathy and lack of foresight; for his faintly 
servile and hypocritical politeness, his absurd veneration 
of birth, his immoderate appetite for honours ; for the 
fact that the only motive capable of awaking him out of 
his lethargy is the hope of realising that secret ambition 



132 JAVA 

of every Javanese : to become an official and to win 
the right to a payong (a State umbrella) of respectable 
diameter. 

Perhaps there is hardly one of these grievances which 
the history of Java does not justify. 

It would be surprising if the Javanese were instinctively 
a coward. All his past history is full of interminable 
wars, a fact which at all events denotes a certain military 
aptitude ; doubtless accompanied, at the end of ages of 
butchery, by a fatigued philosophy. The race which 
won the military glory of the conquering empires of 
Madjapahit and Mataram, and which sustained the 
desperate war against the Dutch which lasted from 1825 
until 1830, having at its head such leaders as Dipo 
Negoro and the young and heroic Sentot, is hardly a 
nation of the peace-at-any-price variety ; and its men are 
not of a spirit that will fly at the least threat. Those 
who know the race well know the danger of exasperating 
its apparently placid nature. The Javanese has retained, 
through his warlike and tumultuous past, those qualities 
of a good soldier which make him an invaluable recruit 
for the Dutch Colonial army. He is brave somewhat as 
the ancient Greek was brave, who would rush upon the 
enemy with heroic courage when he saw that victory was 
possible, but who would fly without shame from an enemy 
obviously too powerful. He has no uncontrollable love 
of danger ; perhaps because he saw long ago that his life 
was too readily sacrificed by others ; but his sense of 
discipline rarely allows him to abandon a post, however 
dangerous. As for his fearing "my Lord the Tiger" — 
as all the natives of the Far East fear him — and attempting 
to flatter him by soft words and courteous phrases, the 
matter is easily comprehensible in a country in which the 
tiger s victims are counted by hundreds year after year. 
The Javanese feels himself naked and defenceless before 
so formidable an enemy, and is afraid ; the European, of 
a different mettle, armed with a heavy rifle, should cer- 
tainly encounter the tiger with a better countenance. It 
is, perhaps, hardly fair to speak of the cowardice of the 




A " WAYANG " : JAVANESE PLAYERS. 




A BATIK FACTORY. 



To face p. 132. 



THE NATIVES OF JAVA 133 

one or the courage of the other ; to do so would be to 
ignore the circumstances. 

The regrettable lack of foresight of the Javanese is less 
deniable. The Javanese is incapable of taking care for 
the morrow, of saving for the lean days, or of economising. 
He will, as likely as not, spend the savings of a month or 
a year in the course of a few hours ; and in order to play 
at dice, or give a ceremonial banquet, he will borrow 
money at the most usurious interest, and is seldom able 
to resist the offers of goods on credit which the Chinese 
and Arab are so generous in making him. But we must 
remember that the Javanese native was exploited for 
centuries by all his rulers ; that he has had to work for 
them unremittingly ; that he could call nothing but his 
life his own ; and we must not forget that slavery was 
officially abolished only as lately as i860. Such a record 
of poverty would hardly teach the race economy, even 
admitting that economy were possible. The native knew 
that he could never save for his own benefit, and hence 
the habit of never saving at all. But why should a man 
save when he can live on a handful of rice and a few 
bananas ? However, since prolonged contact with the 
Dutch has revealed new sources of pleasure and new 
necessities, and since the Dutch Government has been 
occupying itself seriously in bettering the lot of the 
native, and not merely the yield of the soil, the Javanese 
is beginning to meditate upon the question of saving, if 
only to enjoy himself the better on special occasions. 
Reputed idle and apathetic, although he works under a 
fiery sky, and often under deadly conditions, he will nowa- 
days travel long distances the moment he hears of an 
offer of good wages. Even from the central provinces 
he will set out at the time of the rice or sugar-cane har- 
vest, often travelling as far as the eastern side of the 
Peninsula, on to Malang, or even to Surabaja and Sama- 
rang ; in short, wherever he can earn 3 to 5 francs a day 
(2s. 5d. to 4s.). The few savings-banks already opened 
with a view to develop the prosperity of the natives 
were at first regarded with a certain amount of sus- 



134 JAVA 

picion, but lately the deposits have been larger each 
year. 

It is hardly possible as yet to expect democratic ideas 
or a passionate love of independence from a race formed 
first by the Hindus and their oppressive caste system, 
and then by Islam with its fundamental fatalism : a race 
which for twenty centuries has been governed by greedy 
autocrats or disdainful masters. For this fact the Dutch 
may well be thankful ; for if, in addition to their numerical 
strength, the Javanese had possessed the indomitable 
temper of the Achinese, no European Power could ever 
have settled in the island. Gentle and patient by nature, 
the Javanese have been crushed and enslaved during the 
whole of their long history; but it would be unjust to 
call them servile or hypocritical or cowardly, because 
they treat their masters to-day with the marks of deference 
which they showed their masters of long ago ; a deference 
which does not signify the servility which some profess 
to behold in it, but merely a venerable tradition of polite- 
ness. It is as well to note that those who complain the 
most of the factitious quality of Javanese politeness would 
be the first to complain were it lacking towards them- 
selves. They would regard such a lack as an insult, 
almost as a crime. 

On the other hand, nothing amazes them so much as 
the smouldering rancour which insulting words or be- 
haviour will evoke in the hearts of such people, for whom 
good manners and the distinction of classes are still the 
foundation of the social system, and who, having done 
what they conceive their duty by the Europeans in 
treating them with every shade of intentional courtesy, 
do not receive in return the consideration which they 
consider their due. 

Their avid appetite for honours and outward distinc- 
tions, their hunger for umbrellas (payongs) and promotion 
in the grades of official hierarchy, is explicable in the 
light of their past, for they have always been accustomed 
to see these signs accompanied by the reality and enjoy- 
ment of power, with all its abuses. We must recognise, 



THE NATIVES OF JAVA 135 

moreover, that the present has been so far unable to 
accomplish very much in the way of modifying the con- 
ception inherited from the autocracies of the past, and 
from the traditions of Hinduism and Islam. The Java- 
nese issues from his lethargy and progresses in culture 
and initiative only when self-interest draws him. This is 
a regrettable fact : but it is also true of the majority 
of Europeans, whose conceptions, from different motives, 
are becoming more and more utilitarian, while purely 
disinterested culture is becoming rare. 

The Javanese does not even seek to improve his equip- 
ment with a view to enriching himself by a praiseworthy 
commercial activity, or a better application of agricul- 
tural methods ; he dreams, above all, of becoming an 
official, of wearing a uniform. This is again regrettable ; 
but this also is a common failing elsewhere than under 
the tropics. But the day may come, even in the colonies, 
when, with the same native hierarchy, and at the instance 
of the rulers who are now so politically careful not 
to shatter the old Javanese conception, we shall see the 
farmer or the self-made merchant treated by the public 
authorities with the same benevolence and consideration 
as the most indifferent mantri. 

As long as officialism continues to offer the double 
advantages of material security and a satisfied vanity, it is 
unjust to reproach the Javanese with regarding it as the 
sole end of his efforts. It would be absurd to blame the 
Javanese for taking a plain, direct view of his immediate 
interests, and to expect him, after centuries of veneration 
of power and authority in its slightest emanations — a 
veneration encouraged by the Dutch themselves — to 
awaken suddenly to a radically antithetical conception of 
rational liberty and individual initiative. He must first 
receive or give himself a long and difficult education. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE JAVANESE MIND 

I. The religious question in Java is involved in the historic 
evolution of the masses. The religion of Java is a sincere 
Islamism, modified by the survivals of earlier cults; tolerant 
and kindly, like the character of the nation. — II. How the 
Dutch Indies escaped Christianity. — III. The problem of 
education in Java; its various phases since the Dutch occu- 
pation. — IV. The awakening of the Javanese people and 
their leaders ; their claims. 

I. 

It is difficult to acquire a satisfactory conception of the 
Javanese mentality unless we allow for the degree of its 
religious and intellectual development, and for the influ- 
ence which the Dutch have brought to bear upon both. 

The Javanese, like the Sundanese and Madurese, are 
all, with the exception of a negligible minority, earnest 
Mahomedans. Their Islamism is sincere rather than 
fervid, and is modified by the surviving traces of other 
cults which corresponded to other periods of their past. 

Although we cannot say with certainty whence the 
Javanese originated, nor when they gained possession 
of their island, it is at least practically certain that they 
practised, in the first instance, a more or less crude form 
of animism, doubtless very similar to that which still sur- 
vives among the Dyaks, Bataks, Alfurs and other races 
of the Archipelago. 1 A number of rites and usages 

x A very active Christian and Mahomedan propaganda has been 
carried on for a long time among these peoples, and has succeeded, 
especially among the Bataks, as the various works published of late 
years by explorers and missionaries testify. 

136 



THE JAVANESE MIND 137 

borrowed from this ancient cult, and paralleled by 
the modern animistic cults of the above peoples, persist 
to this day in Javanese domestic life, in the shape of 
numberless popular superstitions. 

From the first century of the Christian era, according 
to the most plausible conjectures, down to the thirteenth 
or fourteenth century, Java and the surrounding islands 
professed the Hindu or Brahministic faith; and towards 
the fifth century the Buddhism of the south of India was 
also introduced. This Hindu civilisation, of which the 
supreme political expression was to be found in the 
empires of Tumapel and Madjapahit, while its supreme 
artistic expression was manifested by Prambanan and 
Boro-Budur, sets its mark deeply upon the race ; even 
to this day its inspiration is to be found in the social 
conceptions, the history, the literature, and the theatre 
of Java ; it gave the Javanese his alphabet, and his 
ancient tongue, or the Kawi; * and his two forms of cus- 
tomary idiom— the kromo, or High-Javanese, employed 
in addressing a superior, and the ngoko, or Low-Javanese, 
employed in speaking with an inferior — are both full of 
Sanscrit roots. 

Towards the thirteenth century probably Islamism was 
first preached by Persian and Arabian merchants, in the 
ports of the Far East with which they traded. It 
slowly made its way into Sumatra, and then into Java. 
Towards the beginning of the fifteenth century it assumed 

x Kawi — the ancient Javanese language. The kawi or basa kawi 
(in Sanscrit " the language of the poets ") was spoken and written in 
Java until the fifteenth century, and by process of evolution has 
become the modern Javanese tongue. Despite its name, the kawi 
has been as much employed in prose as in poetry, for the translation 
or imitation of legendary, religious, or juridical Sanscrit works. 
Raffles made the language known by translating a portion of the 
Brata-Yuda ; Humboldt wrote a study of it in a work, remarkable 
for its period, entitled Ueber die Kawi-Sprache (Berlin, 1836-1839, 
3 vols. 4to) ; but the honour of having explained the true principles 
of the tongue belongs to Dr. H. Kern (Kawi-Studien, The Hague, 
1 87 1, 8vo) : a book which has been the starting-point of many learned 
works on the subject. 



138 JAVA 

the offensive at Grisei, the first point along the coast to 
see the formation of a Musulman community around a 
dynasty of priests — princes. Hinduism vainly offered 
a desperate resistance. Between 1478 and 1521 Madja- 
pahit fell ; the last Brahmins and Buddhists took refuge 
in Bali and Lombok, and some in the solitudes of 
Tengger; and all Java became Mahomedan as it had 
previously become Brahministic and then Buddhistic : 
without extreme fervour, but with conviction ; being 
persuaded, like many another Asiatic nation, that the 
best religion was that which was able to triumph over 
the others. Java is still of the same persuasion ; and 
many a Dutchman now regrets that the Dutch Govern- 
ment did not formerly, in a spirit of simple policy, 
impress Christianity upon the people. 

II. 

One might reply to this that everything shows that at 
a certain period the thing was possible ; the success of 
the Portuguese propaganda in the Moluccas at that period 
seems to prove it. Yet the circumstances were far less 
favourable in the case of Holland ; and when the Dutch 
finally had the leisure to undertake such a task they 
would probably have found it no longer practicable. 

When the Dutch East India Company commenced, at 
the beginning of the seventeenth century, to eject the 
Portuguese from the Archipelago, it was composed of 
men in whom the religious sense was still powerful : 
men whose very nationality had issued from religious 
conflict. It could not remain indifferent to the question of 
conversion, which was still ostensibly one of the objects 
of its colonial policy. However, instead of attempting 
to evangelise Java, it applied itself simply to converting 
the converts of the Portuguese in the Moluccas from 
Catholicism to Protestantism. Could the Company have 
done more at that moment, considering the scanty means 
at its disposal and the enormous area of Java, where it 
could only obtain foothold little by little, while struggling 



THE JAVANESE MIND 139 

against the sullen jealousy of the Chinese and the quickly 
awakened hostility of the Mahomedan princes of Java ? 
It is very doubtful, It is probable that the Dutch suc- 
ceeded in obtaining so complete a foothold in Java only 
because they put forward no imperialistic policy, no 
religious designs, but were apparently actuated simply 
by a utilitarian and commercial object. This wise 
neutrality, which was imposed by the circumstances, 
and led to such extraordinary success, became the rule 
of the Company, so necessary was it to avoid injury 
to the susceptibilities of the natives, did the Dutch wish, 
in the first place, to appear their friends and allies, 
and afterwards, although their rulers, preferable to all 
other Europeans. 

The Dutch were no more able to renounce their policy 
in 1816, w r hen they recovered the Indies from the English. 
In order to counterbalance the happy memories of such 
an administrator as Sir Stamford Raffles, without adopt- 
ing his policy, they were obliged to surpass it or to sink 
it into oblivion by the excellence of their own methods ; 
so that any religious interference at such a time would 
have been disastrous. 

Moreover, in the political system adopted by the 
Dutch, which was that of governing Java through its 
chiefs, by means of its own institutions, while they 
themselves, in spite of their unremitting control, re- 
mained in a remote and mysterious twilight which 
increased their prestige, the separation of the religions 
and languages of the Europeans and the Javanese became 
an essential article of their programme. 

The Javanese accordingly were not disturbed in their 
beliefs. When, in the latter half of the eighteenth 
century, Holland discovered that the intrigues of the 
Mahomedan Turks and Arabs were likely to cause dis- 
turbances in Java, and that her Christian subjects in 
Amboin were closer to her and perhaps more loyal 
than the Mahomedan Javanese, and that the pride of 
Islam was raising a barrier between herself and the 
natives — a barrier which at that period was no more 



140 JAVA 

desired by Holland than by the natives themselves — 
it was already too late to change her religious policy. 

Both Christian pastors and Catholic priests, the latter 
being as it were regretfully tolerated in restricted numbers 
from the beginning of the nineteenth century, were 
subjected to all kinds of formalities, especially at the 
outset, before they could obtain permission to make a 
stay in the Dutch East Indies; were subsidised meagrely 
or not at all, and were honoured by none of those signs 
of outward consideration which so greatly impress the 
natives of the Far East, so that they were necessarily 
unable to make headway against the absolute indifference 
of the Javanese. 

Was the opinion of the Protestant Raffles correct 
(which has often been corroborated by various Dutch 
administrators), that the dry, cold spirituality of Pro- 
testantism repelled the natives, who would have been 
converted with far greater ease by the pomp and sym- 
bolism of Catholicism ? If so, how could Holland, 
whose very existence as a nation sprang from her revolt 
against Catholicism in Europe, install that very sect in 
Java ? Moreover, from the seventeenth to the nineteenth 
century it appeared to the Dutch, whether rightly or 
wrongly, that it was far more dangerous to allow the 
Javanese to become spiritually subject to Rome than to 
allow them to remain subject to Constantinople. 

In 1906 the Reformed Church in Netherlands India 
numbered 38 ministers and 25 assistants, and the Roman 
Catholic Church numbered 35 cures and 22 priests; none 
of either sect received any payment from the public 
funds. There were also about 205 missionaries at work 
throughout the Indies. The number of Christians in 
Java and Madura was not more than 26,000 ; in the 
Outer Possessions there were 434,000. Compared with 
the total population, these figures appear quite hope- 
less. 

None the less, the priests of the two cults play a very 
appreciable part, giving the Government valuable help in 
educating the natives, in imparting ideas of hygiene and 



THE JAVANESE MIND 141 

morality, and in bringing them to a higher pitch of 
civilisation, especially in the Outer Possessions. 

Moreover, we must not forget the number of learned 
Dutchmen— highly distinguished ethnologists, linguists, 
and historians — who have gone out to the Indies in the 
quality of missionaries. 

Although the Javanese remains a Mahomedan with a 
certain pride in belonging to a great international com- 
munity, he is none the less a Mahomedan with a minimum 
of fervour and orthodoxy. He regards all Arabs with 
great respect, as in his eyes they are all more or less 
remotely descended from the Prophet, and especially 
venerates the Hadjis ; but he is not easily persuaded by 
them to abandon his ancient Hindu or animistic prac- 
tices, such as offerings to Buddhist shrines ; and although 
he observes the rite of circumcision, he refuses to fast 
and abstain from work on Friday. As a rule, he is 
ignorant of his religion ; seldom goes to the mosque, 
and rarely says the five prayers. The people abstain 
from fermented liquors because they are naturally sober ; 
but certain regents, and the Sultan and Susuhunan, do 
not regard the drinking of wine as an offence, in spite 
of the eminent religious position of the latter. The 
number of Javanese who accomplish the pilgrimage to 
Mecca, which is expected of every pious Mahomedan, is 
negligible (less than five thousand annually), although it 
has doubled in ten years ; and many undertake it only 
to call oblivion down upon an evil past, or to add to a 
fortune, perhaps dubiously acquired, a certain amount 
of social consideration ; or from ambition ; or to join 
to other advantages a vague atmosphere of sanctity. 
Again, the Javanese does not observe Ramadhan, or 
the month of fasting, with very noticeable strictness, 
leaving that duty to the priests and a few santris. Of 
the three great yearly festivals of Islam — Maulid, f Idu 
'l-fitr, and 'Idu I Qorban, which he knows as garebeg 
mulud, garebeg puasa, and garebeg besar — the Javanese 
makes very little of the first, which solemnises the Nativity 
of Mahomet; or of the second, or the feast upon the 



142 JAVA 

cessation of the fast ; while he pays hardly more atten- 
tion to the third, the garebeg besar, the great festival, 
or day of sacrifice, which takes place on the tenth day 
of the twelfth month, and should be preceded by a fast 
on the ninth day. On this occasion the pious Musul- 
man must give alms, and must attend the mosque for 
prayer in common with his co-religionists. Even in 
the Vorstenlanden, which are centres of comparative 
religious fervour, these two festivals are most indiffe- 
rently observed. The garebeg puasa is the most religiously 
solemnised. It falls upon the first day of the month 
of Sawal 9 bringing Ramadhan to a close. Whether the 
festival is badly observed or well, every one is delighted 
that the fast is ended ; people bathe, wash their hair, put 
on new clothes, and set out to wish happiness to their 
friends and relations. Europeans have formed the habit 
of exchanging good wishes with the natives on the day 
of this festival, and some even believe that it represents 
the Javanese " new year." The Dutch Government has 
raised the garebeg puasa to the status of an official 
holiday. 

In all provincial or district capitals the regent, on the 
day of the garebeg puasa, having received the respects of 
his subordinate officials, and having accompanied them 
to the mosque, proceeds to the house or palace of the 
Resident or Assistant, who awaits him, at ten o'clock, 
in full uniform. The regent announces that the feast 
is terminated, expresses his good wishes and those of 
his companions, and returns to his own dwelling. The 
Resident, in turn, proceeds to pay a similar visit to the 
regent ; this is an occasion of pomp and ceremony, and 
after the Resident has in suitable phrases expressed his 
felicitations and those of the Government there is a 
thunder of cannon, a general exchange of congratula- 
tions, and popular games commence upon the aloun- 
aloun. At Djokjakarta and Surakarta, at the courts of 
the Sultan and Susuhunan, the festival is considerably 
more brilliant than elsewhere. 

From the Laodicean temperament of the Javanese, and 



THE JAVANESE MIND 143 

his profound politeness, arises his perfect tolerance in 
religious matters, and his utter lack of fanaticism ; but 
we must not conclude that he is indifferent. He is a 
good Musulman because he believes and wishes himself 
to be one ; it is probable that even persecution would 
fail to make him abandon Islam, were such treatment 
ever to be adopted ; for when once the quiet, reserved, 
apathetic Javanese, stung by too keen an injury to his 
self-esteem, has engaged in a conflict with Holland, his 
most formidable revolts have always had the appearance 
of outbreaks of religious fanaticism. It was so with 
Pieter Erberfeld, 1 whose name, after the lapse of two 
hundred years, is still upheld to execration upon the 
ruined walls of old Batavia ; and also with another 
rebel of quite another complexion — Dipo Negoro, the 

1 The son of a German resident in Batavia and of a native woman, 
Pieter Erberfeld, who became a Musulman, appears to have been 
wealthy and influential. Thanks to the distribution of amulets made 
of little copper discs, he succeeded in surrounding himself with 
numerous partisans — they numbered nearly seventeen thousand — 
among whom a Javanese, Kartadrya by name, was particularly devoted 
to him. He had formed the project of expelling all Europeans from 
Java, and of making himself the ruler of Batavia, with the title of 
Tuan Gusti, or August Lord, while Kartadrya was to be com- 
mandant of the districts. It is said that a native woman betrayed 
the plot, which was dated for the ist of January, 1722. A number 
of conspirators were put to death, and Erberfeld was atrociously 
tortured, while his house was rased to the ground, and it was 
decreed that the site should never be built upon again. To this day 
in old Batavia, not far from the church, one may see a blank wall 
on the top of which is a skull transfixed with a rod of iron. Below 
is the following inscription ; — 

OYTEN VERFOEYELYKE TO PERPETUATE 

GEDACHTENISSE TEGENDEN THE ACCURSED MEMORY 

GESTRAFTEN LAND VERAA= OF THE CONDEMNED TRAITOR 

DER PIETER ERBERVELD PIETER ERBERFELD, 

SAL NIEMANT VERMOOGEN SHALL NO ONE RAISE 

TE DEESER PLAATSE TE ON THIS SPOT 

BOUWEN TIMMEREN MET== HOUSE, BUILDING, OR STRUCTURE 

SELEN OFF PLANTEN NU NOR PLANT [ANY GROWING THING] 

OFTE TEN EEWIGEN DAAGE NOW AND FOREVERMORE. 

BATAVIA DEN 14 APRIL A 1722. BATAVIA THE 14 APRIL ANNO 1722. 



144 JAVA 

instigator of the great Javanese War, whose disappointed 
ambition and outraged dignity ended in a mystical 
exaltation, which was indubitably sincere, and in an 
appeal to all the centre of Java, calling upon the people 
to arm themselves for the prosecution of a holy war. 
Such also was the form assumed by the last exasperated 
risings among the famine-stricken people of Bantam. 



III. 

The problem of native education is even more complex, 
from the Dutch point of view, than the question of 
religion. It is not, however, a problem of very long 
standing : as lately as 1796 the Dutch Indian Company 
which was governing, or rather exploiting, the Dutch 
Indies, appeared to have no suspicion that such a 
problem could ever present itself. It confined itself to 
drawing from the soil the utmost that the soil could 
yield, concerning itself neither with the political institu- 
tions nor the social conceptions of its so-called subjects, 
lest the one or the other should stand in the way of its 
adroit extraction of the resources of the country. It is not 
certain that it could have done more, considering the 
means at its disposal ; certainly it appears never to have 
dreamed of approaching the subject. 

The short but fertile French domination, followed by 
the rule of England, had of necessity to take action in 
other directions ; the question of natiye education 
was not touched upon, save in a purely indirect 
fashion. 

Although when the Dutch, in 1816, resumed posses- 
sion of the Indies, the indifference with which the natives, 
with whom they had so little concerned themselves, had 
passed into the hands of other masters, without a regret 
for their old rulers, should have been a cruel but salutary 
lesson, the manner in which they resolved henceforth 
to enter into contact with their subjects was not, perhaps, 
as fruitful as it might have been, although at the outset it 
might have seemed the only wise method. 



THE JAVANESE MIND 145 

Their policy was then, and for forty years to follow, 
that of respecting the natives and their institutions. Lest 
the Mahomedan susceptibilities of the Javanese should 
be awakened, the Dutch impeded, deliberately but 
sincerely, the efforts of the only class of people who were 
at that moment anxious to enlighten and develop the 
native mind : namely, the missionaries, Catholic and 
Protestant. In spite of the blunders which these latter 
committed — having first selected Latin, and afterwards 
Malay, as the medium of their education and evangelism 
— they would certainly, although their ambition of con- 
version might well have failed, have developed the 
mentality of the natives, if only by a step. 

But the Dutch continued to leave the mass of the 
people prostrate in ignorance and servitude, under the 
direction of their own chiefs, although the intellectual 
insufficiency and regrettable immorality of the latter 
became always more and more obvious. 

The famous Marshal Daendels, at the time of the 
French domination, had very wisely decreed, in 1808, 
that all the regents of the north-eastern coast of Java 
should at their own expense create — thus leaving the 
Treasury unwrung — schools provided with able teachers, 
for the purpose of educating the natives according to 
their adat and their belief. 

This decree, repealed by the Dutch, remained a dead 
letter. In 1849 there were still only two regent's schools ; 
these two being due to two regents who were full of 
initiative — those of Japara and Pasuruan. In 1851 there 
were five, but so pitiful that they were hardly worth the 
trouble of maintenance. 

They were, for the most part, " Koran schools/' of an 
indefinite type, which a holy man — a panghulu or 
santri, 1 attended in a more or less regular fashion, giving 

1 Panghulu (Malay: Dutch transcription pengoeloe, or panghoeloe), 
the dean of a mosque ; santri (Javanese), a student in theology, a 
theologian ; a pious man who studies the Musulman religion. 
Religious establishments in which theological instruction is given 
are in Java called pesantren; the quarters inhabited by santris are 

IX 



146 JAVA 

the scholars a certain amount of religious instruction, 
reading to them, and making them learn by heart certain 
passages of the Koran. They might not infrequently 
-increase the fanaticism of some of their pupils ; they 
could aid in the development of none. 
i Good issued from the greatest evil ; from the infamous 
system of compulsory crops (Cultuurstelsel), conceived 
by Van den Bosch ; the most immoral and gigantic 
spoliation to which an upright, generous, kindly people 
could ever have lent itself in its blind utilitarianism ; a 
system from which Java is barely recovering to-day. 
This system, which was apparently a capital thing for 
Holland, since it enabled her, between 1850 and 1870, 
deliberately to extract from her colony nearly two thou- 
sand millions of net profits, was realised by means of 
unjust deeds, legal exactions, and at the cost of human 
life, and it finally forced the ruling country to take two 
matters into consideration. One of these was the 
notorious incompetence of the regents, who directed the 
affairs of the system in their own provinces and shared 
the benefits : an incompetence which, together with 
their cupidity, was likely to drive the native to extremes, 
by aggravating the system by additional and useless acts 
of injustice. The second was the necessity of choosing 
among the natives innumerable subordinate employees, 
which this colossal system of exploitation required for its 
regular working, and as a check, as far as might be, 
against fraud. There thus arose the necessity of edu- 
cating the natives employed from top to bottom of the 
scale ; always with a strictly utilitarian aim. 

This idea outlived the method of compulsory cultures, 
being taken over unchanged by the Liberal party which 
abolished the latter. But this time it was adhered to 
with the more respectable object of preparing natives of 
high birth to become worthy of being actually associated 
with the power of Holland, and to make the mass of the 

known as pondok (root fondouq = Travdox^Tov) ; the hall in which 
classes are held is called langgar in Java, and in the Sundanese 
country, tadjug. 



THE JAVANESE MIND 147 

people capable of obtaining the best from themselves as 
well as from their soil. The law of 1854 was not voted 
without furious recriminations and desperate political 
struggles, and it was only in 1872 that it was put into 
execution. It is only fair to say that Holland — all that 
was most noble and enlightened in the country — the Van 
Hoevells and Van den Puttes — immediately entered the 
most vehement protests against the immorality of the 
system of compulsory culture, and that the whole country 
attacked it without waiting for revolt or disaster in the 
colony, simply as the result of a determined appeal to its 
conscience. Moreover, from 1872 onwards, we shall find 
that Holland has been full of a general and maternal 
solicitude for the Dutch Indies ; the fact is that her 
administrators have gradually learned the native tongues, 
and at last come into contact with them. Other 
functionaries, who have often been especially com- 
missioned by the home authorities, have made a careful 
study, on the spot, of the native manners, beliefs, abilities, 
and ambitions ; many misunderstandings have been cleared 
away, and after a long period of ignorance concerning her 
subjects, Holland is endeavouring to atone for the past. 

It is essential, however, that the movement in favour 
of a system of serious education should obtain the im- 
mediate and ungrudging support of all its European 
advocates, especially those in the colonies. 

At the outset there were many who, in their lethargic 
egoism, protested against the idea of educating the 
natives ; saying that it was impossible to do so, or that 
they themselves did not wish for education, or that were 
they educated they would gain nothing by it ; they had 
lived for centuries without instruction, so that any 
attempt at further development, so far from bringing them 
enlightenment, would merely fill their feeble minds with 
discontent and chaos. 

IV. 

Two facts appear at length to be definitely established. 
The Javanese, who is extremely precocious, has also an 



148 JAVA 

open, adaptable type of mind, which has great powers 
of assimilation. Left to himself, he learns all the sub- 
tleties of his own very complex language, and also those 
of the Malay tongue ; he has a remarkable knowledge of 
the names and properties of the plants and trees of his 
country ; his faculty of locating himself, of being aware 
of the points of the compass, even in the dark, is gene- 
rally known ; and all that appertains to design, geography, 
or topography he absorbs with the utmost eagerness. 
In school, thanks to his precocity, it often happens that 
he outstrips European children of his own age ; and in 
some cases he is able to maintain this superiority for 
years. 

Latterly, in short, whenever certain privileged indi- 
viduals have obtained a full European education, we 
have seen that they make a very good showing, and 
have sometimes proved themselves of considerable 
value. It is therefore impossible to argue that the 
Javanese cannot be educated j 1 a fact which is now so 
generally understood that no one, save a few narrow- 
minded autocrats, dares to continue to oppose the 
movement. 

The native's passion for learning is perhaps even more 
firmly established than his aptitudes ; young and old, all 
are ambitious to learn. When the first Normal Teachers' 
School was opened in Java, the cadets of the aristocracy 
rushed to enter it almost as precipitately as the people ; 
perhaps because they saw in it, as did the people, a fresh 
possibility of becoming functionaries ; but also because 

1 It would be easy to name the son or grandson of this or that 
regent as speaking and writing not only his own language, but 
Malay, Dutch, French, &c, as well, and capable of passing very 
brilliantly in the higher examinations in Holland. A certain doctor 
in medicine might be named, also a fluent speaker of many lan- 
guages, who is noted in the universities of Europe both for his 
acquired knowledge and his untiring intelligence. Dr. L. Serrurier, 
in the Catal. de la sect, hides N eerlandaises a V expos, col. 
d Amsterdam (Leyden, 1883), cl. xi., has a short biography of a 
Javanese painter, Raden Saleh Sarief Bastaman (1814-1880), who 
enjoyed a certain celebrity. One might easily lengthen such a list. 



THE JAVANESE MIND 149 

they desired to learn, to raise themselves another step ; 
and it was difficult to make them understand that the 
school was not for them. On the other hand, when the 
provincial schools especially intended for them were 
opened, every peasant who was in comfortable circum- 
stances commenced to intrigue in the hope of entering 
his sons. The " schools for the sons of chiefs " in 
Bandung, Probolinggo, and Magelang in Java, and in 
Tondino in Minahasa, for the Outer Possessions, were 
very soon complained of as insufficient both in numbers 
and in the scope of their curriculum. The ambition of 
every regent's son was to share in the education which 
the Europeans were receiving in their own separate 
schools ; to learn Dutch and the principal elements of 
Western culture. 

It will be readily understood that in former years this 
enthusiasm for learning was neither so general nor so 
precise in its aim. From the year 1820 all the regents 
were bitterly complaining that they had been despoiled 
of their powers and the number of their prerogatives ; 
that they were playing a wholly illusory part in the Java 
whose masters they had formerly been. Few would 
admit that their lives, devoted to the pursuit of pleasure 
and cupidity, together with their ignorance and their 
unjustifiable exactions, would scarcely have permitted 
them to have led a more active existence ; still less did 
they admit the necessity of revising their education in 
order to make themselves fit for such a life. Only a few, 
like the regents of Japara and Pasuruan, and, later on, 
those of Demak and Karang Anjar, declared that the 
Javanese nobility could only retain its rank by submitting 
to the forces of evolution, and that the Dutch Govern- 
ment ought to assist it. 

Many saw in the opening of these " schools for the 
sons of chiefs " either a futility or a snare by which the 
Europeans hoped to destroy their ancient customs, and 
turn the sons against the traditions of the fathers. For a 
time there were vacancies in the Bandung school, and 
the five regents of Bantam, a province greatly attached 



150 JAVA 

to Islam and adat, refused to send their sons there ; but 
a Dutch official finally persuaded one of them to allow 
his son, who was a very gifted boy, to enter in spite of 
the objurgations of the others, and their gloomy pro- 
phecies. The tact with which the boy was educated, 
the extent to which he profited, together with the inborn 
taste of the Javanese for intellectual culture, triumphed 
over the old suspicion, and the four other regents imme- 
diately sent their sons to the school, which thenceforth 
had as great a vogue as the others. 

Prolonged contact with Europeans, and the Russo- 
Japanese War, which affected the Javanese merely as the 
friends of Japan, which means little enough, but which 
gave them, in common with other Asiatic peoples, the 
unexpected and pleasing surprise of seeing that the 
yellow man was capable of making use of European 
arms, and with them of defeating a European nation, 
could only increase this thirst for development from the 
top to the bottom of the social scale, while giving a more 
definite knowledge of the form which that development 
should take. 

It is impossible any longer to refuse the natives of the 
East Indies the education which in Europe is compul- 
sory, since they have shown themselves capable of pro- 
fiting by it, and demand it. It would be puerile to raise 
the objection that they must be content with the neutrality 
which has been theirs for the last ten centuries ; Europe 
herself has advanced only by a process of continual 
evolution ; and since enlightenment and power proceed 
from Europe the Javanese demand that they shall receive 
their share. At all times attached to the soil, to the 
memory of their ancestors, and to their adat, but 
having, as they consider, exhausted the resources of their 
own civilisation, they demand the opportunity of renew- 
ing their strength by means of Western civilisation, so 
that they may extract from it all that will not obscure the 
originality of their own. 1 

1 One may obtain some idea of the highly intellectual and per- 
fectly loyal aspirations of the young Javanese aristocracy by ex- 



THE JAVANESE MIND 151 

They affirm that their loyalty will be in no sense dimin- 
ished, whatever the pessimistic may believe. They are 
faithful subjects of the Queen, they know all they owe to 
Holland, and that they could not for a long time to come 
dispense with the Dutch and rule themselves ; but the 
upper classes which have hitherto been nominally asso- 
ciated with the exercise of power might not unreasonably 
hope to regain a certain degree of actual and effective 
power, by which not only they, but the whole social 
body, would benefit ; and the people, which is gradually 
developing a consciousness of self, perceives the possi- 
bility of improving its condition, both morally and mate- 
rially, by a rational self-development. 

The Javanese aristocracy are far from crying, "Java for 
the Javanese ! " because, at the present moment, such a 
cry would be a piece of fatuous vanity. What they do 
cry is, " Give us light ! " — light under the maternal aegis 
of Holland, so that they may once more become worthy 
of their past, and of a still better future. 

Hence the cry for a multiplication of the primary 
schools, where the natives could learn not only their 
own language and Malay, but, towards the end of their 
studies, the elements of Dutch as well ; where, above all, 
they would gain a certain practical knowledge of hygiene, 
agriculture, surveying, and accounts, and where they 
would receive salutary advice on the subjects of thrift 
and foresight, so that by yielding them more their 
native soil should become yet more dear to them, while 
some might be induced to enter upon commercial 
pursuits, which they have ignored only too long. 

The more wealthy and intelligent, the sons of petty 
officials, or cadets of good family, might pursue their 
studies in the professional schools of agriculture and 
commerce, and would provide the administration with a 
solid framework of subordinate employees, and with the 

amining the programme of a native league, the Budi Utotno, and the 
minutes of two congresses held by this league in October, 1908 and 
1909, which I have given in the Revue du Monde Musultnan, vol. vii., 
April, 1909, pp. 414-427 ; vol. ix., Dec, 1909, No. 12, pp. 612-620. 



152 JAVA 

nucleus of a class of native landowners educated along 
modern lines. 

Others would pass through the Native College of 
Medicine at Weltevreden, which is attended by the 
sons of the priyayi and the younger sons of regents. 1 

The better equipped of these Dokters-Djawa, whose 
ardent though loyalist patriotism has already been re- 
marked, would obtain scholarships or exhibitions which 
would allow them to perfect their training in the schools 
of Holland, which in their eyes are the source of all true 
knowledge. 

The sons and heirs of regents and high officials are 
asking not for schools especially created for them, but 
for the right to enter the elementary schools (lagere 
scholen), then the secondary schools (burgerscholen, 
hitherto reserved for Europeans only), in the hope 
that afterwards, if they prove themselves competent, 
they may attend the universities of Holland, and there 
pass the same examinations as their Dutch fellow-students, 
with a view to entering upon the same careers. 

This attractive programme, democratic in its liberality, 

1 School tot opleiding van Inlandschen Arisen, or, vulgarly, the 
Dokters-Djawa School. It trains the Dokters-Djawa, or native 
physicians, who are of great service. At the outset they receive 
a salary of 50 florins per month, and hold the rank of assistant 
wedono of the first class (district under-chief). The curriculum in 
the School of Native Medicine includes the following subjects : 
Dutch, physics, chemistry, botany, materia medica, therapeutics, 
pathology, bacteriology, and minor surgery. A polyclinic has been 
recently added to the school. The lectures, &c, are in Dutch and 
Malay. The course lasts three years in the case of pupils of the 
preparatory department, and six years in the case of the medical 
section, properly so called. The school is capable of accommodating 
two hundred students. The Weltevreden Hospital possesses as an 
annex a school for midwives (School tot opleiding van Inlandsche 
vroedvrouwen) , intended to educate native women in European 
ideas of practical obstetrics, hygiene, and the rearing of children. 
They receive no fixed salary upon leaving the school, but may 
claim payment for their work. — Priyayi (Dutch spelling, prijaji), 
employee, official, and, by extension, any one who holds a place or 
rank, or is a person to be considered. But the word has especially 
the meaning, in the wider sense, of " gentleman." 



THE JAVANESE MIND 153 

yet securing for members of the aristocracy the pre- 
rogatives which they have always been granted, would 
unhappily prove enormously expensive. It testifies to 
the native's touching and candid confidence in the 
modern deity, who finds none to deny him among the 
peoples of the Far East: the deity of progress, incar- 
nated in the civilisation of the Western world. 

All that Holland has already performed in the way of 
educating the natives guarantees the goodwill of the 
administration in this matter, and her resolution to 
complete her task. 

In 1849 the budget of public education for the natives 
amounted to 25,000 florins, for one normal school and a 
few provincial schools. In 1906 it amounted to 2,318,358 
florins for five normal schools (three in Java and two in 
the Outer Possessions), with 31 masters and 300 pupils, 
and 323 elementary schools with 74,984 pupils in Java 
and Madura alone, which were subsidised by the Govern- 
ment, and 446 private schools with 50,344 pupils. The 
result does not appear very considerable if we compare it 
with the density of the population and the money 
expended ; but what colonial Power can boast of 
having done as much ? Certainly not England in 
India, nor France in Indo-China. 

Will the Dutch Government be able to go much 
further, and, with the help given by the private schools, 
succeed in satisfying all the demands for further schools 
which are pouring in on every hand ? It is very certain 
that it will have to proceed more deliberately than the 
native aristocracy desires ; the heavy expenses of public 
education, added to the cost of the Achinese War for the 
last three years, is causing a slight deficit in its budget ; 
but it does not appear that this deficit will be increased. 
For the rest the movement is well afoot ; everywhere the 
richer natives, often in conjunction with the wealthy 
Chinese, are offering to come to the help of the authori- 
ties in order that they may obtain their desire ; and 
unless progress is the most illusory of chimerae, Java is 
on the way to acquiring mental and moral characteristics 
which are worthy of attracting attention. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE ORIENTAL FOREIGN ELEMENT 

I. The Oriental foreign element in Java and Madura : the 
Japanese, Arabs, and Chinese. The Japanese are the latest 
arrivals, and the least numerous, but also the best treated. — 
II. The Arabs : the religious and economic danger represented 
by the Arab element in the Dutch Indies. — III. The Chinese : 
their numbers, their activity, their wealth. Why they are con- 
sidered detrimental to the political and economic power of 
the rulers, and the morality and prosperity of the native.— IV. 
The various solutions of the problem ; their injustice, or in- 
sufficiency, or the impossibility of applying them. The only 
remedy is to educate the Javanese so that they may take their 
place as devoted collaborators and agents of the administration 
and the European industries. 



I. 

Besides the 29,715,908 Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, 
and Malays, and the 64,917 Europeans who inhabit 
Java and Madura, the two islands together contain a 
further population of about 320,000 Orientals. 

These may be divided into 295,193 Chinese, 19,148 
Arabs, 2,842 Japanese, Armenians, Persians, &c. 

The Japanese, who do not exceed 1,800, although the 
latest comers and by far the least numerous, are none 
the less the best treated. 

Since the possession of Formosa, taken from the 
Chinese, and the happy issue of the Russo-Japanese War 
have given them a preponderant position in the Far 
East, we see them going forth on every hand, bringing 
with their national pride their curious intelligence, 
alternately adaptable and arrogant, their activity and 

151 



ORIENTAL FOREIGN ELEMENT 155 

powers of assimilation, which allow them to appear, in 
the eyes of the rest of Asia, as having won the victories 
of Western civilisation. They have the double advan- 
tage of being of the same racial strain, yet of appearing 
to be as " strong'' as Europeans ; so that in the Dutch 
Indies, where this gives them a dangerous superiority 
over the other yellow races, they have obtained the 
favourable treatment reserved for Europeans. 

This fact contributes not a little to increase their 
prestige still further in the eyes of the natives; already 
native papers abound, on the fourth page, in Japanese 
advertisements, wherein physicians, apothecaries, and 
shopkeepers of all kinds offer the Javanese, in terms 
adapted to their mental make-up, the last effort of Western 
science, or its most finished products. They are trying 
to oust the Chinese from the market ; and their initial 
move, although not as yet formidable, in view of their 
scanty numbers, at all events manifests their perfect 
competency for that purpose. So far it would be almost 
as absurd to exaggerate their nascent influence as to 
ignore it. 

Although the Japanese, legitimately proud as they are, 
and perhaps a little carried away by their late success, 
are seeking to make friends of the people of the Archi- 
pelago, of whom a more or less plausible theory makes 
them the distant cousins, it does not appear so far as 
though the native masses are particularly impressed. 
The aristocracy alone recognises their significance ; but 
has been more than once repulsed and wounded by the 
intractable pride with which the Japanese have long 
been reproached, and which makes it less easy to do 
business with them than with the adaptable and obliging 
Chinese ; and the example of their relentless seizure of 
Korea has given many pause to think. 

II. 

With the Arabs, on the other hand, the Javanese has 
powerful religious affinities, and the habit of long-estab- 



156 JAVA 

lished intercourse. From the earliest times, moreover, 
the small Arab community has exercised a living in- 
fluence upon the life of the island, and on several 
occasions has caused the Dutch Government some 
anxiety, though perhaps without very good reason. 

As a rule, Europeans make two complaints against 
the Arabs. Firstly, they accuse them of pan-Islamic 
tendencies; they fear that they will awaken, as soon as' 
they can, in the name of a community of faith, the fire 
of fanaticism in the lethargic, tolerant mind of the 
Javanese, and will direct it against the Dutch ; secondly 
they complain that their bad faith in matters com- 
mercial, and their usurious habits of business, are under- 
mining the economic prosperity of the Europeans in 
Java, and are even more harmful to the natives. 

These two grievances appear to correspond with the two 
categories of Arabs who inhabit the Dutch Indies. On 
the one hand are the Hadjis and sdntris who visit Java 
in order to watch over its orthodoxy, and to reanimate 
the faith of the natives, and the few influential heads of 
Arab communities in the large towns, who are more or 
less the spiritual directors of such communities ; on the 
other hand are the traders and travelling merchants. 

The Javanese retains a certain traditional respect for 
the Arab, who was formerly his religious sponsor : he 
regards the Arab as of the noblest race of all, because he 
is descended more or less remotely from Mahomed, and 
because he is a Musulman. 

For the rest, it is indubitable that among the Arabs of 
the East Indies are some of a rebellious type of ortho- 
doxy : often smitten with the ambitious dream of pan- 
Islamism, by which the Musulman of the East who has 
been subjected to the intellectual hegemony of the West 
attempts as far as may be to console his pride. It hurts 
them to see the Indies, where formerly they were 
morally predominant, still in the hands of the infidels ; 
but this vague and secretive state of mind rarely betrays 
itself by overt acts ; only in a few individuals does it find 
open expression. Nearly all the Arabs maintain an 




AN ARAB TRADER, SURABAJA. 



To face p. 15^ 



ORIENTAL FOREIGN ELEMENT 157 

attitude of extreme propriety with regard to the Dutch 
authorities. The best, who are also the most highly 
placed, by reason of their enlightened views of religion 
and of justice : the others because they know themselves 
weak in the presence of a well-organised power. With 
the exception of a few petty and unfortunate intrigues 
on the part of subordinate Turkish agents, all the 
religious disturbances of the last thirty years have been 
the work not of Arabs but of Javanese or Malays, who 
have returned from Mecca, having there been transformed 
into fanatics by the retrograde beliefs and impossible 
hopes upon which the colony of Djawas still nourish 
themselves. The Dutch have had far more trouble with 
the Javanese and Malay pupils of the Arabs, who have 
been influenced by the dangerous and fanatical atmo- 
sphere of Mecca. 1 

There is more to criticise in the commercial habits of 
the Arabs. Their name in the Far East, as in France 
in the eighteenth century, is synonymous with usury 
and deceit. As regards their dealings with the Euro- 
peans, their economic competition with whom is com- 
plicated by a sullen political hostility, they are accused, 
with only too good reason, of failing to meet their 
engagements ; of abusing sleeping partners and vendors 
by a comedy of probity, which they sometimes prolong 
for years, and then, just as they have negotiated a heavy 

x " As early as the eighteenth century there were groups of East 
Indian Mahomedans of considerable importance in Mecca, which 
had already been established there for some time ; they were the 
nucleus of the colony of the ' Djawas/ or Musulmans of Malay 
race, which is to-day so numerous, and which comprises natives 
from all parts of the Indian Archipelago/' Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, 
La Politique du gouvemement des hides N eerlandaises a I'egard de 
Hadjis (trans, into French by T. J. Bezemer in the Rev. du Monde 
musul., vol. viii., Nos. 7-8, p. 401). In Mekka, a work by the same 
author, in the last chapters of vol. ii., is a curious study of the colony 
of the " Djawas." The Rev. de I'hist. des relig., 1908, has also pub- 
lished an article by Dr. Snouck Hurgronje entitled l' Arabic et 
les Indes N eerlandaises, which is the opening lesson in his course 
on Arabic at Leyden University. 



158 JAVA 

loan, or a large purchase on credit, of taking flight like 
common swindlers. As regards the Javanese, who 
started by regarding them with favour on account of 
their community of belief, they are accused of shameless 
usury, and of urging the Javanese, credulous and impru- 
dent children as they are, to ruinous purchases on credit. 

The only remedy, supposing these grievances to be 
well founded, is for the European to take such precau- 
tions in doubtful transactions with the Arab that the 
latter, who is naturally a good man of business, is quickly 
made to feel that his only chance of trade in the Indies 
lies in honest dealing ; this is a lesson which, if neces- 
sary, must be taught him against his will. Suspicion 
on the part of the customer is always the beginning 
of honesty on the part of the vendor. 

Similarly, the best means of delivering the heedless 
and extravagant Javanese from the yoke of the Arab in 
matters commercial is to enlighten him as to his real 
interests ; to educate him in business matters, in order 
to teach him to look after himself. A man is never 
better defended than by himself. 



III. 

The Chinese question is more complicated, because 
the Chinese possess three important advantages: 
numbers, wealth, and ability. In every important city 
they form a thickly peopled colony : there are 28,150 in 
Batavia, 13,636 in Samarang, 16,843 in Surabaja, 5,266 
in Djokjakarta, and 6,532 in Surakarta ; one finds them 
wherever there is money to be made ; and their presence 
anywhere is enough to denote some known or possible 
source of gain. 1 The Dutch say they collect like vultures 

1 " These strangers (the Japanese and the Chinese) are as the 
Jews, and even worse ; they go never into any poor or barren land, 
but live always and traffic in those countries where milk runs and 
honey, where they may derive profit " (Gabaril de S. Antonio. 
Successos del reyne de Camboxa (Valladolid, 1604), f°l- 7& The 
period of which he speaks dates from 1580 to 1600). 




05 

3 

Q' 
W 



w 
z 

«*! 

Q 
D 



ORIENTAL FOREIGN ELEMENT 159 

about their prey. The Chinamen, so one always hears, 
arrives emaciated, naked, with an empty stomach, and 
without a sou ; but, once in Java, by force of work, 
adaptability, sobriety, and activity always alert, in the 
space of two years his purse and his stomach fill out, so 
that he is able to leave the master tailor, shoemaker, 
shopkeeper, or manufacturer with whom he first took 
service. He begins to work for his own profit. Very 
often a pedlar or packman, were it only to gain a better 
knowledge of the country, and to go adventuring after 
that continually looked-for occasion, the chance of a 
certain fortune, he sets out, indefatigable, with a com- 
plaisance that nothing can rebuff, so that when he 
returns from his tour, with his money-bags fuller, and 
the richer by a profound experience, he is ripe for 
larger enterprises, and he knows where to find them. 

Thus patiently the Chinaman becomes one of the 
great owners of the island, whose luxury exacerbates the 
envy of the Europeans ; a drain upon the public fortune 
which must not be overlooked. The value of Chinese 
property in Java is estimated at ^16,000,000. 

A buyer and a seller of all kinds of merchandise ; a 
manufacturer who will buy and renovate abandoned 
workshops ; a farmer of State monopolies, which he 
nearly always obtains through always having ready 
money, and having obtained, oppresses the people with- 
out remorse in order to regain his money and his profit ; 
a lender of small sums by the week and a large banker ; 
always smiling and supple, whatever be his fortune, 
where he smells a profit ; pitiless to his creditors, whose 
debts he will impudently increase with the utmost 
effrontery, and on whom he will cheerfully bring com- 
plete ruin ; such is the Chinaman. He has, in short, all 
the intelligence and all the crude immorality of what 
men agree in calling "a man of business/' 

The Europeans in the Indies, as formerly in Indo- 
China and other Asiatic countries, complain furiously of 
the Chinaman ; and their angry protests are not always 
without foundation. They reproach him with creating 



160 JAVA 

a dishonest competition, and with ruining the Javanese. 
The competition between Celestial and European is no 
new thing in the Dutch Indies. When the Dutch, the 
victors over the Portuguese, wished to extend their rule 
to Java, they had far more trouble with the hostile 
Chinese merchants, who had been in the island for 
centuries, than with the open revolt of the Musulman 
princes. It is only fair to say that they often made the 
Chinese pay in the cruellest fashion ; for the struggle 
was desperate between 1737 and 1741, and many Chinese 
were put to death. 

The scission of the ancient kingdom of Mataram into 
the two Principalities of Djokjakarta and Surakarta 
took place in the second half of the eighteenth century, 
simply to punish and thenceforth to prevent the secret 
assistance which the Susuhunan had lent to a horde of 
Chinese who had offered to rid him of the Dutch. The 
Chinese, despite their number, were massacred without 
pity, and the Susuhunan, although it was not obvious 
at the time, paid with the half of his territory for his 
tacit connivance in the intrigue. 

Slowly deprived by the Dutch of their political pre- 
dominance, the wily Asiatics took their stand anew 
upon the economic battle-ground ; the Europeans to- 
day complain that they ruin the market by offering 
goods similar to theirs at a far lower price, thanks to 
the incredible conditions under which their newly- 
landed countrymen are forced to work, and because 
they themselves can live on nothing. Thus at one 
stroke they exploit their own countrymen, the Euro- 
peans, and the Javanese, whom they persuade into 
making unreasonable purchases of articles whose value 
is as inferior as their price is low. The argument is just 
a little specious ; it is true that the Chinese, who by 
reason of his Asiatic birth and his tastes lives under 
conditions which are infinitely less costly than those of 
the European, can sell at an infinitely lower price, even 
without the outrageous exploitation of his own poorer 
compatriots ; this is an advantage of race which he will 



ORIENTAL FOREIGN ELEMENT 161 

always retain. But if the Chinaman were not there, can 
we be certain that the native would enjoy any other 
advantage than that of paying the European very dearly 
for articles that might be excellent, but beyond his 
means ? The European is suffering from the hard law 
of economic competition ; if he wishes to triumph, he 
must play other cards than the expulsion of the Chinese, 
who have by now become one of the indispensable 
factors of the prosperity of the Indies. 1 

What would become of the European and the Dutch 
Government without the presence of the Chinaman in 
Java ? A hard worker, meditative, mindful of his respon- 
sibility, he is the linch-pin of all great public or private 
enterprises ; to the native the necessary intermediary, 
the obscure but necessary cog-wheel, the middleman, 
the go-between, whom the European would not and the 
Javanese could not as yet replace. One finds him every- 
where ; one needs him everywhere ; one must therefore 
accept him, while limiting, as far as possible, the bad 
effects of his role. 

One thing is undeniable : that although the Chinaman 
may penetrate to the heart of the remotest kampongs, 

x The chief reasonable objection to the Chinese is that they are 
apt to remove large sums of money from the country ; though in 
the case of business concerns descending from father to son this 
is not the case. But even where it is the case we must remember 
that the Chinaman's fortune is only his wages for distribution ; it 
does not matter to the Javanese whether a Chinaman or a railway 
brings his goods. After all, the Chinaman is an element of national 
prosperity ; for of the money he receives much goes to his 
employees, who use it to purchase food from the Javanese ; he also 
imports and exports goods. The Dutchman almost invariably 
retires with his fortune to Europe ; the Chinaman does not always 
take his fortune out of the country. In any case that fortune is the 
wages for transactions that bring money to Java. Thus the objec- 
tion to him is that of a jealous rival ; he is less of a drain on the 
country than the European. To impose death duties and to teach 
the native thrift and self-control would make the Chinaman still 
more harmless as regards Java ; while the Europeans should seek 
to develop those branches of commerce in which the Chinaman 
cannot compete with them.— [Trans.] 

12 



162 JAVA 



there to introduce the goods, the tastes, and the needs 
of more civilised races, he is often accompanied by ruin 
For the man he has to deal with as customer is the most 
irresponsible and prodigal of clients, utterly incapable 
of weighing the consequences of his acts, desiring every- 
thing, just as does a child, without stopping to consider 
whether he will ever have the means of payment. The 
Chinaman demoralises him by his insistent and insinu- 
ating offers, makes him buy beyond his needs, and 
allows him to buy upon credit, which is nearly always 
the best form of legal theft when one has the poor to 
deal with. He furnishes the deadly even more willingly 
than the useful; he will rather sell opium 1 than cloth ; 
he will lend at outrageous rates of interest ; will take all 
the native's possessions in payment of a trifle ; deceives 
him in the smallest accounts ; and having first appeared 
as the most obsequious of servitors, he reveals himself 
as the most pitiless of masters. For this evil, although 
it is proven, there are no remedies excepting one, the 
efficiency of which some Europeans distrust as much 
as they distrust the Chinese : to educate the Javanese 
until he can defend himself against his own puerile 
covetousness, and against the temptations of the Chinese, 
so that he may gradually collaborate with the European 
in supplanting them. Such a task would be long and 
far from easy, yet undoubtedly possible. Ten years ago 
the train running between Batavia and Surabaja took 
two whole days for the journey ; the passengers slept at 
Maos, as they were assured that the train could not 
proceed by night ; the thoughtlessness, irresponsibility, 
and idleness of the native drivers and stokers making 
it out of the question to trust them for a night journey. 
For some time now they must have reformed themselves 
in these particulars, for the train pursues its way by 
night as well as by day. Such cases are seen every- 
where, and indeed it is probable that the Javanese, 

1 The Sundanese, thanks to the Chinese, have begun to consume 
a deplorable amount of opium, although fifty years ago they 
scarcely knew of its use, 



ds 




< 

X 

o 



ORIENTAL FOREIGN ELEMENT 163 

having hitherto played an absolutely subordinate part 
in all important undertakings, may nevertheless one day 
be able, if only they are given an appropriate educa- 
tion, to assist the Europeans in ousting the Chinaman. 
It is a desirable consummation. 



IV. 

In the meantime the harshness of the Chinese influ- 
ence might be mitigated by progressively abolishing the 
process of farming out monopolies, taxes, &c, the 
recovery of which is so oppressive, and often so unjust, 
that the State contracts for them in order to be rid of 
the business. Even the most case-hardened of Euro- 
peans sicken at the business, so that it passes almost 
entirely into the hands of the Chinese, who often 
squeeze double the legal tax from the poverty-stricken 
natives. The opium monopoly has already been almost 
entirely wrested from the Chinese by means of a scheme 
of excise based upon that employed in Indo-China, 
greatly to the benefit of the native's intelligence and his 
savings. The native is being gradually weaned from 
this dangerous drug, while the Chinese vendor used to 
force its consumption by every possible means. 1 It is 
equally urgent that the monopoly of lending upon 
pledges should be withdrawn from the Chinese, as 
they abuse it in order to despoil the natives, although 
the system was originally intended to help them. This 
is nearly all that can be done at present. 

It seems hardly possible, either morally or materially, 
to deport the Chinese, and a matter of great difficulty 
to confine them, according to the methods of another 
age, to a few ports. To be frank, it is necessary to 
reckon with the enormous State which stands behind 
them, and also with the economic power which they 

1 See W. P. Groene veldt, Rapport over het opium monopolie in 
Fransch Indo-China in verband met de vraag in hoever beheer in regie 
van dat middel voor Nederlandsch-hidie wenschelijk is (Batavia, 1890, 
large 8vo). 



164 JAVA 

represent, as was proved by the decree of 1837, P r °- 
hibiting further Chinese immigration into the Indies, 
which had to be repealed. On the other hand, since 
their complete political docility is assured by their or- 
ganisation into communities, which are subject to the 
commands of a u major/' u captain/' or " lieutenant," 
appointed by the Dutch authorities, would not the 
simplest plan of dealing with them be to " Javanise " 
those who are in the island, and to limit further immi- 
gration, especially of women ? For the Chinese woman 
is the chief danger; she creates a home abroad for the 
immigrant ; a home foreign, if not hostile, to the Indies. 
Impenetrable though the Chinaman seems to be in his 
inner self, he is really extraordinary in the ease with 
which he adapts himself to his surroundings. When 
fortune smiles upon him he seems at once to be at home, 
and if he is not wealthy enough to have his wife sent 
over from China he will take a wife in Java, or at least 
a concubine, who is of the utmost value to him in his 
business, on account of her profound knowledge of his 
world. Again, the concubine is often extremely useful 
to him in his schemes for obtaining land ; for example, 
she will lend her name to the purchase of a plot of land, 
supposing it to belong to a territory which is now for- 
bidden him, and which becomes a portion of the real 
estate which he and his compatriots have gradually 
accumulated, either when the State was alienating its 
territory, in the eighteenth century, or when private 
individuals have sold their own holdings, which were 
bought at the same period. Attached to Java by reason 
of their affection for the soil, and the families they have 
reared in the island, there are very few chances of their 
returning to China ; in the majority of cases the China- 
man's Javanese wife and children alone are sufficient to 
retain him in the island. Although some, after amassing 
a fortune, abandon their temporary families and return 
to China, and although some of those who temporarily 
settle in the Indies, having brought their families with 
them, come with the sole end of amassing money, there 



ORIENTAL FOREIGN ELEMENT 165 

are also many who will settle for good, and their children 
will be only half Chinese, while their grandchildren will 
be Javanese, with a superiority in the matter of educa- 
tion and business traditions which will greatly facilitate 
their progress. These latter only should be favoured. 

It is worth remarking that in many localities the 
Chinese, allied by ties of blood with the native Malays 
and Javanese, ask nothing better than a community 
of interest with these latter. They even issue some 
Chino-Javanese newspapers in which their demands are 
published, and which help the Javanese to fight the good 
fight in order to force their way into the European 
schools and obtain their share of Western culture. For 
the Chinaman, so obstinately conservative in his own 
country, elsewhere demands, although his object is 
purely utilitarian, the knowledge which will the better 
enable him to struggle against his economic competi- 
tors. 1 It would indeed be strange, however vigorous 
their personality, if in the long run a fixed population of 
some 150,000 Chinamen, married to native women, 
could not be absorbed by a population of more than 
29,000,000. 

As for the means of restraining the immigration of 
the Chinese without notorious harshness, it would seem 
that a system of taxes, comparable to that already in 
successful operation in the United States, should be 
sufficient in Java, if the taxes were adequate. 

Besides an annual poll-tax, a comparatively high 
entrance duty, and a tax upon revenue and industry, 
the Dutch Government should demand of the new-comer 
the possession of a trade, a surety, and savings enough 
to prevent his immediately becoming a burden on the 
colony or fattening himself entirely at its expense. But 
measures of this sort, if half-hearted, lose their pro- 

x Numbers of the Chinese established in the East Indies speak 
Dutch, and often English. It seems that there is talk of publishing 
a newspaper in the Dutch language, subsidised by the Chinese, 
which will uphold their interests. At the present time the Malay 
press in Java is almost entirely in their hands. 



166 JAVA 

hibitive character ; they must either be re-enforced or 
renounced. 

The great drawback to the employment of such 
measures is that the inequality of such treatment, com- 
pared with favourable treatment of the Japanese, would be 
rather too flagrant. Since the Japanese have been treated 
with consideration, the Chinese insistently demand similar 
consideration, and they can only be denied by sheer right 
of sovereignty. Despairing of obtaining equal treatment 
by straightforward means, some have hit upon a ruse 
which is natural enough, but little likely to conciliate the 
sympathies of the colonists; they proceed to Formosa, in 
order that they may, after being settled there for some 
little time, become naturalised Japanese, and then, with 
all the privileges enjoyed by the latter, deliberately settle 
down in Java. It is probable that such as these, who 
will soon be of three nationalities, will hardly be in the 
most formidable category of Chinamen in respect of the 
natives. 

It is true that the competition between Chinese and 
Japanese will probably lead, without much delay, to the 
elimination of these too newly-branded Japanese. 

Nevertheless, in an age when the employment of 
violent measures against a whole category of individuals 
is always futile or dangerous, we must repeat that the 
best means of defence against the preponderant influence 
of the Chinese in Java is to teach the Javanese, who are 
teachable in the extreme, to beware of them, and to 
replace them as quickly as possible in practically every 
employment into which they have insinuated themselves. 1 

1 Concerning the Chinese question in the Dutch Indies, see the 
following works : G. A. Romer, Chineezenvrees in Indie, cited from 
Vragen des Tijds (Haarlem, 1897, 8vo) ; W. de Veer, Chineezen onder 
Hollandsche vlag (Amsterdam, 1908, 8vo). 




THE CHINESE NEW YEAR S FESTIVAL. 




NATIVE POLICEMEN. 
(The forked poles are for holding down natives in a state of amok.) 



To face p. 166. 



CHAPTER VIII 

EUROPEANS IN JAVA 

I. The three aspects of the European element in the Dutch 
Indies : army, colonisation, bureaucracy. The army. — II. The 
colonists : foreigners, and why so few settle in Java. The 
French colony. — III. The Dutch colony. Its relations with 
the State and the natives ; despite the vast area of the planta- 
tions, there are few private freeholds ; the planter is the tenant 
of the State or of the natives ; sometimes of both together. — 
IV. His life : his house, furniture, and costume ; his food, 
servants, and amusements.— V. The instability of European 
families in Java ; why they do not settle there without thought 
of return. — VI. The half-breeds. 



I. 

The Europeans and those of mingled European blood 
form a population of 80,910 in the Dutch East Indies : 
of these 64,917 are in Java and Madura. These figures 
do not include Europeans serving in the army, whose 
numbers are 10,732, not including a reserve of 2,200 
officers and men. 

This colonial army (leger), which attains the total war 
strength of 33,682, is an organism in no way connected 
with the national army of Holland. It always contains 
a proportion of one-third of Europeans to two-thirds of 
natives, excepting in the case of crack regiments, where 
this proportion is reversed. In the native companies the 
officers and a large number of the non-commissioned 
officers are Europeans ; in the artillery the gunners are 
always Europeans, while the drivers, &c, are natives. 

The army is recruited in Europe and in the Indies, 
by voluntary enlistment. The officers are drawn almost 

167 



168 JAVA 

entirely from the Dutch army, and have usually passed 
through the military colleges of Kampen and Breda. 
Besides an initial kit, the sub-lieutenant receives a lodging, 
or an allowance for the same, and a minimum pay of 170 
florins a month, which increases, according to the rank 
obtained, to a maximum of 2,000 florins for a lieutenant- 
general of troops. At the end of forty years of service — 
twenty in practice, the years passed in the Indies 
counting double, like the French u campaigns " — he 
obtains a retiring pension which varies from 1,200 to 
9,000 florins per annum. 

The non-commissioned officers and privates are paid 
according to their country of origin and the arm with 
which they serve. The daily pay varies from o fl. 33 to 
o fl. 44 for the European, and from o fl. 21 to o fl. 25 for 
the native. To this is added uniform, 1 food, lodging for 
men and families, and supplementary rations proportioned 
to the needs of each. Here we have not the least original 
point of the colonial army : each soldier has the right 
to lodge with himself in the barracks his wife or con- 
cubine and their children ; he may even, under certain 
circumstances, take them with him on campaign ; these 
measures, against which morality occasionally fulminates, 
are designed to attach the soldier to his hard calling, 
which is not merely a temporary affair as with the mass 
of soldiers in Europe, while granting the advantages of a 
family or a very modest harem. Their most obvious 
result is to turn the barracks, however neatly they are 
kept, into a squealing nursery, and to enrich the colony 
with half-breeds of all shades and races. 

The majority of the white soldiers are Dutch. To 
these we must add a small contingent of deserters and 
adventurers : German, English, Belgian, Swiss, and a few 
French. 

Among the natives the most valued are the Amboinese, 
for their fidelity and intelligence ; and the Javanese, for 
their disciplined obedience. 

1 Only the European and Amboinese soldiers wear boots or 
shoes.—The florin is one-twelfth of the pound sterling. 



EUROPEANS IN JAVA 169 

The officers of the Dutch colonial army have the name 
of being remarkable trainers of men ; full of initiative 
and technical knowledge ; and as there are always dis- 
turbances here and there in so large an empire, they have 
scarcely the leisure to lose either of these qualities. 

II. 

Outside the army, the Europeans are divided into 
colonists and officials. The Indies have been open to 
neither for any great length of time. The Commercial 
Company or East Indian Company, which obtained a 
monopoly of the trade of the Indies and retained it until 
1796, when its liquidation was announced as the result of 
a bankruptcy amounting to more than .£10,000,000, dealt 
with the Indies for purely commercial ends. We may 
say that it came to figure as a sovereign power against its 
will ; as it was obliged to reduce by force of arms the 
native states which refused the only thing for which the 
Company sued, namely, a certain quantity of the products 
of the country : spices, cotton thread, vanilla and cinna- 
mon, for which it paid little or nothing, according to 
circumstances, and sold at very high prices in a market 
whose rates the Company itself established, thanks to 
the absence of competition. By such means it earned 
enormous profits. It was in nowise inclined to squander 
them upon Imperialistic expeditions, which is the reason 
why it conquered, almost in self-defence, its immense 
possessions, according to the degree in which they might 
maintain or increase its profits. 

Neither had it any ambition to share its possessions 
with the Dutch nation ; at the best it shared them 
jealously with its shareholders. It did not intend that 
any Dutchman should set foot in the Indies, excepting 
a few agents and employees, carefully recruited, with an 
eye to their capacities or their unscrupulous loyalty to 
the Company. It wished to behave as suited it, and to 
take everything for itself. For the people of Holland, 
accordingly, Java remained a strange and distant land, 



170 JAVA 

very beautiful and wealthy, but a forbidden land, by 
which one could benefit only indirectly. 

The Company attained its climacteric between 1654 
and 1678, when John Maetsuyher was Governor. Imme- 
diately afterwards the decline set in : slow, but irre- 
mediable, in spite of the efforts of the six Chambers and 
the famous Council which was the soul of this mercantile 
oligarchy. In spite of the jealous care that was taken to 
reduce to three or four species the spices which were 
grown for the Company in certain islands, which were 
narrowly watched in order to guard the monopoly, the 
European market finally contrived to supply itself from 
America and Africa ; the establishment of the English in 
India was also to bring ruin upon the Company by a still 
more formidable competition, which still further lowered 
prices ; and this ruin was finally consummated by the 
unlicensed luxury of the Company's agents, who, in spite 
of various sumptuary decrees, insisted upon appearing 
everywhere with the pomp of Asiatic potentates, and, 
when the coffers were empty, of procuring money by 
oppressing the natives, who rose against them ; whence 
a series of costly expeditions. 1 

The war with England caused the rotten pear to fall. 
In 1798 the Crown of Holland displaced the Company, 
and proceeded to draw the greater part of the wealth 
of the Indies. The Crown, it appeared, had no idea of 
repairing the errors of the Company ; it was equally 
careless of the needs of the natives ; it distrusted all 
Dutchmen who were not in its service ; it had the same 
utilitarian and egoistical conception of exploiting the 

1 Concerning the privileged Company of Commerce in the East 
Indies see De Geoctroijeerde Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Compagnie, 
by Baron G. G. d'Imhoff ; Considerations sur Vetat present de la 
Compagnie Hollandoise des hides Orientates, relativement a sa navi- 
gation, a son commerce, et a son gouvernement ; et sur les moyens de 
remedier aux causes de sa decadence (La Haye, P. de Hondt, 1763, 
4to) ; J. P. I. du Bois, Vie des Gouverneurs geniraux ; A. Chambaiu, 
Die Holldndisch-Ostindische Gesellschaft (1602-1798) kein Voebild fiir 
unsere Kolonisationsgesellschaften (Cologne, 1891, 4-to) ; Dr. S. van 
Brakel, De Hollandsche handels-compagnieen der zeventiende eeuw. 
Hun ontstaan. Hun inrichting (The Hague, 1908, large 8vo), 




CHINESE KAMPONG, BATAVIA. 







THE BACK OF THE CHINESE KAMPONG, BATAVIA. 



To face p. 170. 



EUROPEANS IN JAVA 171 

Indies. Nevertheless, it was obliged to proclaim the 
freedom of colonial trade, and many a bold spirit slipped 
in through the sullenly opened door. 

The government of the great Marshal Daendels, the 
" Napoleon of the Indies" (1808-1811), and the period of 
the English occupation under Sir Stamford Raffles and 
Lord Minto (1811-1816) were, despite all their troubles, 
as successful as they were beneficial to Java itself. 
Daendels and Raffles, pressed by necessity, were forced 
to alienate the last remnants of State territory, which thus 
passed into private hands, opening a vast field to private 
initiative. 

The scission with Belgium, the war which followed in 
Holland, the enormous deficit which it left in the Dutch 
exchequer, and the system of forced labour designed to 
fill it, unhappily paralysed this first renewal of life. In 
1850, however, when the system of compulsory labour was 
condemned by public opinion, colonists reappeared in 
the Indies, to replace forced by free labour ; and in i860, 
when slavery had been officially suppressed, and in 1873, 
the State having resolutely assumed its essential duty of 
protecting and educating the natives, Europeans were 
encouraged, and hastened to establish themselves as 
colonists. The distrust of the Government, hardly 
recovered from so many warnings, and always suspicious 
of covetousness in others, was at last pacified ; to-day, 
thanks to her climate and her inexhaustible agricultural 
resources, Java ranks high among the countries of Asia 
as the home of many Europeans. 

Nearly all the Europeans in Java are Dutch. Holland, 
a country of merchants and sailors, and one of the 
wealthiest in Europe, in proportion to the numerical 
weakness of her population, has had no need to borrow, 
as it were, from other nations, either colonists, merchants, 
manufacturers, or money. 

The Dutch own the most desirable of all colonies, 
having regard to their national characteristics ; which 
explains why they are to be found in Java in far greater 
numbers than the English in India or the French in 



172 JAVA 

IndoChina. The European non-Dutch element (not 
counting European soldiers) consisted in Java an f d 
Madura, in the year 1907, of 800 Germans, whom one 
finds under all skies and in all latitudes, about 180 
English, 274 Belgians, 146 French, and a few Italians. 

Java, for reasons already given and for others, such as 
its over-population by the natives, whence labour is very 
cheap, and the absence of mines of gold or silver capable 
of enriching the prospector by a sudden stroke of luck, 
has no attractions for poor Europeans. They could not 
perform manual work on account of the climate ; and 
there are no gratuitous concessions of land. The French 
in Holland are mostly hairdressers or tailors ; presently, 
no doubt, the number of modistes will increase, as the 
Dutch are now inclined to abandon the fashion of going 
bareheaded in the evenings, as did the Spaniards in the 
Philippines, and as the women of South America do. 
A few Frenchmen go to Java as planters, cultivating 
sugar-cane or coffee on land rented on a long lease from 
the State, with the help of considerable capital. Such a 
course is the only means of making money in Java, as it 
is in India and Indo-China. There should be room, how- 
ever, for merchants and for young electrical engineers, 
as many factories have need of the latter, and Holland 
does not herself produce them. 

The stranger, of whatever nationality, or even the 
Dutchman newly landed in the Indies, is required within 
three days of his arrival to present himself to the 
authorities in order to establish his identity by means 
of his passport, and to declare whence he comes, where 
he is going, and his purpose ; and this must be done 
under penalty of a five-florin fine for each day of delay, 
and expulsion if he shows himself evidently unwilling to 
comply with their formalities. 1 This supervision, if at 

1 On the pier of the Messageries Maritimes, which runs the service 
between Singapore and Batavia, the following notice is displayed : — 

"Admission of Foreigners to the Dutch Indies. 
" Every person without exception not a resident in the Dutch 
Indies, is required to present himself to the chief local authority 



EUROPEANS IN JAVA 173 

first sight a trifle strict, is perfectly comprehensible ; 
surrounded with powerful neighbours, and having to 
maintain order throughout a great empire with the least 
possible display of force, Holland prefers prevention 
rather than reprimand, and would rather examine her 
guests at the outset than be forced to expel them from 
the island if they turn out badly. Once the new-comer 
is accepted, the Government is extremely cordial in its 
relations with him, and no one receives a warmer 
welcome than the Dutch planter in Java. 

III. 

The colonist in Java, where the soil contains little 
subterranean wealth, is essentially an agriculturist ; and 
the numerous factories which are building in every 
part of the island are only for the preparation of the 
true treasures of the land : coffee, tea, sugar, tobacco, 
quinine, &c. 

The plantation, which is often over 250 acres in extent, 
may pass into the colonist's hands in three different 
manners. He may have bought one of those great 
private tracts which the Company in its decline, and 
Daendels and Raffles in the early years of the nineteenth 
century, sold at the instance of a pressing need of 
money. Some of these estates fell into the hands of 
Europeans, some into the hands of the Chinese. 1 Some 

of the place where he or she finally leaves the vessel in which the 
voyage has been accomplished within three days of his or her arrival^ 
in order to prove his or her identity, and to declare whence he 
or she has come, and with what object he or she has arrived in 
the Butch Indies. 

" A fine of /5 (five florins) per day of delay is incurred in case 
this call is not made within the prescribed period of three days, 
but the total amount of such fine cannot exceed /ioo (ioo florins)." 

The same notice is displayed in the public offices of Tandjong 
Priok and on the tramways of Batavia. The introduction of native 
"servants" or boys coming from abroad is prohibited, or at least 
causes all kinds of difficulty. 

1 These territories, which are no longer capable of extension, 
cover an area of some 2,500,000 acres. 



174 JAVA 

are immense tracts of untilled land, very difficult to 
break up for agriculture, owing to the lack of sufficient 
labourers ; some are highly and completely cultivated, 
containing one or more villages, which pay rent or dues, 
and with regard to the owner are situated somewhat as 
a vassal with regard to his sovereign. On such an estate 
the owner may plant his sugar-cane, tobacco, or coffee, 
and build his factory and his house, provided that he 
does not seriously infringe the rights of any of the 
natives, who are under the protection of the State. But 
however large such an estate may be, the colonist does 
not often retain it in his own hands. When he has the 
chance of acquiring one of these private properties he 
very commonly divides it : for how can he tell whether 
his son will be content to live in Java after him, 
and continue his work, supposing that he has a family ? 
In climates where the violent action of nature seems 
for ever renewing the aspect of physical objects, he does 
not experience any unreasonable desire of permanency ; 
and if he owns land he rarely retains in freehold 
more than the plot on which his house or factory is 
built. 

As a general thing the planter rents his land from the 
State. The State is the principal owner in the island ; 
but has reserved an enormous private domain for its own 
exploitation, or for that of the natives with the permission 
of the State. The State gives the planter the land he 
requires as leasehold tenant (erfpachter), often for a term 
of seventy-five years — the duration, and more, of a life, 
and the time required to make a fortune — for a moderate 
annual rent ; but in a district where labourers are rare. 
The native, supervised by the State, which will not allow 
him to be despoiled, can sell the planter only a very 
small portion of his own property ; or may let, for twelve 
years or longer, a slightly smaller portion, on which the 
planter will build his factory in order to have it near the 
village, so that he may obtain plenty of inexpensive 
labour. It may thus often happen that the colonist is at 
once the tenant of the State in respect of his plantation. 




SUGAR-CANE, JAVA. 




RICE AND COFFEE LANDS, JAVA. 



To face p. 174. 



EUROPEANS IN JAVA 175 

and the tenant of the native in respect of the site of his 
factory or godowns. 

As for his dwelling-house, he tries to build it on land 
that is really his own ; a desire easy to comprehend, and 
not very difficult or costly to realise. 



IV. 

The chief luxury of the colonial dwelling in Java, as 
in Indo-China, and nearly all countries of the Far East, 
is its setting, which nature gives for nothing. In the 
midst of a vegetation of magnificent trees and inter- 
twining creepers (lianas), the planter's house is equally 
simple and spacious. As it is intended principally to 
form a shelter from the sun, and to admit as much fresh 
air as possible, one might almost say that it chiefly con- 
sists of a roof set upon four corner-posts ; the floor, 
which is raised above the ground, in spite of the absence 
of cellars, in order to keep it comparatively free from 
animals and insects, 1 is covered with cement, bricks, or 
slabs of sandstone ; or, in the wealthier houses, is flagged 
with marble. It is reached by an outside landing of two 
or more steps, which is beautified by various plants and 
flowers. As a rule the house has no upper floor, as such 
an arrangement gives the inmates the benefit of lofty 

1 Various species of lizard : the geckos, or tokke (Malay toke, tekek), 
whose singular cry (tokke ! tokke !) astonishes the new-comer ; the 
hemi-dactyls or margouillats, little geckos which run across the 
ceilings, which in Java are commonly known as tytyaks : these little 
reptiles keep the houses free of spiders, mosquitoes, and the softer 
insects. They are powerless, however, against the termites, vul- 
garly known as " white ants " (rayap, ani-ani), which ravage every- 
thing : timber, woodwork of all kinds, books, and clothing. One 
has also to beware of the attacks of ants (semut), spiders (laba-laba, 
kelo monggok) ; centipedes (Jav. klabang, Mai. lilipan, lipan\ rnyria- 
pods whose bite is venomous ; cockroaches (Upas, tjord) ; " flying 
ants," termites in the winged or perfect phase (larongs), which leave 
their retreats in the evening and fill the air with prodigious swarms, 
and at sunrise strew the earth with their bodies ; and other 
creatures. Before putting on one's boot or shoe it is always 
advisable to examine the interior. 



176 JAVA 

as well as spacious rooms ; although in Batavia and 
Surabaja, under the influence of European customs, 
some very fine houses are now being built with upper 
stories. 

The colonial house nearly always consists of a large 
central chamber or hall, which also serves as a dining- 
room when many guests are received. An inner gallery, 
running right and left, opens on the bedrooms ; some- 
times on an office or study for the master of the house, 
and a boudoir or workroom, or both in one, for the 
mistress. In front of this inner gallery is a large outer 
gallery or verandah, supported by pillars, which is open 
to all the winds, and is furnished with rocking-chairs, 
furniture devoid of upholstery, ornaments and bibelots, 
vases, flowers, arranged in the best possible taste. This 
large verandah serves as a drawing-room or reception- 
room ; and parallel to this, at the back of the house, is 
another verandah, where the family live and take their 
meals on ordinary occasions. This back verandah corre- 
sponds to the chambre de menage of the French, the 
stube of the Germans, the dining-room of the English, 
the "parlour" of the Americans. 

In some wealthy houses this back verandah is replaced 
or supplemented by a pendoppo, a room open on all 
sides ; covered with a separate roof, but built against 
the back of the main building. Formerly timber and 
bamboo were the materials chiefly employed in house- 
building ; to-day stone is more common, or concrete 
(beton), or even sheet or corrugated iron. 

The roof is covered with tiles, or shingles cut to the 
shape of slates ; the ceilings of hardwood or djati (teak), 
or sometimes of white bamboo matting ; but never of 
stucco or plaster ; are decorated more or less, according 
to the fortune of the house-owner ; the walls are carefully 
whitened or painted ; on the floor the carpet is replaced, 
with great advantage, by clean, flexible matting. The 
kitchens, stables, coach-house, larders (or gudangs), and 
the bathroom (without a bath, but containing a piscina, 
and a large vessel of water which is poured over the 



EUROPEANS IN JAVA 177 

head, and refreshes one better than anything), are in 
separate buildings, standing apart from the house. 

Furniture is necessarily simple. Upholstered furniture 
is banished, as it is the certain refuge and prey of the 
swarming insect-life ; draperies are reduced to the 
minimum, since as little air must be intercepted as is 
possible ; the bedrooms are provided with a bedstead 
of wood or iron, which is usually provided with a 
wire spring-mattress, no other being impervious to 
insects. The bed or upper mattress is of kapok ; * there 
are curtains of transparent muslin, and always a mos- 
quito-bar of the same stuff ; there is also the classic 
round bolster of American cloth — the " Dutch wife "-— 
which is placed between the legs, in order to diminish 
the perspiration ; there is finally a sheet, but no 
coverings, except in high altitudes. 

The furniture of the dining-room and the salon is 
either of rattan, bamboo, or hardwood, either worked 
or bent. The large bay-windows, the transparent 
curtains, and the light, flexible mattings of split bamboo 
or palm-leaf, are the most prominent features of the 
colonial house, which is the best possible refuge from 
the tropical heat ; a refuge whereby the anaemic system 
derives a little comfort, while the eyes are rested by a 
harmonious blending of Oriental and European taste. 

Everything required to furnish and decorate the house, 
all necessary clothing, and all, in short, that a European 
could possibly feel the need of in Java, may be bought 
in the island at a moderate cost, which prevents the 
necessity of taking them out from Holland, at the risk 
of their proving unsuitable, and possibly at great incon- 
venience. At Batavia one can buy all that is needed 
for a family containing two children — all the necessary 
furniture, excepting glass, crockery, lamps, &c, for about 
;£6o. A complete installation costs ^ioo to ^120. 

It is unhappily the case that from year to year the 

1 A silky, lustrous down which forms around the seed of the 
kapok, or false cotton, or cotton-wool tree (Eriodendron an- 
fractuosum D.CJ 

13 



178 JAVA 

colonial house, especially in the cities, is tending to 
resemble more and more closely, as regards the exterior, 
the ordinary Dutch dwelling-house, to the great dis- 
advantage of the simplicity of colonial life ; it is also 
gradually losing its rustic simplicity. Planters and 
officials are marrying, far more frequently than of old, 
young women who possess, if not considerable wealth, 
at least considerable social position and refined tastes. 
They expect to find in the Indies everything that they 
would consider as forming a comfortable and enviable 
household at home. This explains why the older houses 
in Batavia — and notably in Surabaja, that city of pro- 
gress and modernity — are being heightened by another 
story, the effect of which is not always happy. In such 
houses the inner gallery serves only as a passage ; the 
back verandah is furnished with teak furniture french- 
polished in the modern style : little tables, bibelots, and 
gold-worked embroidered fabric is often more in the 
way than in good taste. Glass doors are slowly being 
replaced by light curtains ; and the light matting is dis- 
appearing from the marble or imitation marble floor of the 
salon, which is covered by a drugget, like those to be seen 
in the morning-room of the provincial middle classes. 

Some families, and not the least important, resist this 
nonsensical vanity, and the perfect simplicity of their 
interiors is relieved only by the reflections from a few 
fine Japanese or Chinese porcelains, or the soft glow of 
gracefully draped sarongs; and perhaps, on a massive 
teak sideboard, the mysterious smile of some precious 
I ndo- Javanese statuette. 

The Dutchman, who is almost as great a stickler for 
etiquette and formalities as the Englishman the moment 
he officially represents his country, and has nothing in 
common with the democratic ease of the French colonist 
in Indo-China, has succeeded in attaining, as far as 
every-day life is concerned, a modus vivendi full of 
cordial good-fellowship and agreeable liberty, which has 
enabled him, in spite of the climate, to live long and 
happily in Java. 



EUROPEANS IN JAVA 179 

He profits as far as possible, in matters of clothing 
and food, by the instinct and experience of the native. 

In the East Indian home the man is always clothed in 
pyjama x trousers and a tunic of white cotton, his 
feet being bare in heel-less slippers ; the woman is 
becomingly clad in the Javanese sarong, of a fine, 
thin cotton, held at the waist by a red girdle ; a wide 
embroidered camisole (kabaja), and microscopic slippers 
which complete this summary toilet. From the aesthetic 
point of view the effect is rather disastrous ; the sarong, 
which closely moulds the round, slight figure of the 
little women of Java, takes regrettable liberties with the 
robust build and the often considerable height of 
the women of Holland : but the costume is relatively 
so cool that it allows the mistress of the house to go 
about her household duties without feeling the heat of 
the climate unduly. Formerly the women used to wear 
the native costume in the streets, and when visiting 
relations or intimate friends, and while shopping ; to-day 
they wear it only at home ; and young girls and new- 
comers often refuse to adopt it, replacing it by a loose 
peignoir trimmed with lace. Sarong and peignoir dis- 
appear in the evening, when visitors are received ; when 
folk walk or drive on the Koningsplein at Batavia, 
or sally forth to take ices at the celebrated Grimm's of 
Surabaja : they make way for the most fashionable 
European toilettes ; for the torments of a more or less 
learned coquetry, which must certainly cause many a 
sigh in those who submit to them after the familiar 
sarong or the loose peignoir. Formerly the smartest of 
women used to go bare-headed in the morning and 
evening ; the plumed, feathered, complicated hat of 
Europe is now making its appearance, and before long 
amateurs of the latest fashions will be able to contem- 

1 Pyjamas in Java signifies simply loose trousers held up by a 
running- string at the waist. In Indo-China the term moresque is 
employed to denote a sleeping- or resting-suit consisting of wide 
trousers and a full tunic with ample sleeves, made of plain or 
printed cotton. 



180 JAVA 

plate them in all their extravagant absurdity in Batavia 
or Saigon as well as in London, Paris, or The Hague. 

In their ordinary diet, however, the Dutch are still 
following the example of the natives ; and to this fact 
they owe a very great deal of the success with which 
they resist the climate. Early in the morning the 
Dutchman usually partakes, at the family table, of an 
excellent cup of coffee, very strong, with boiling milk 
added ; at nine comes a cold breakfast, with tea, and 
various native condiments which stimulate the appetite ; 
at one he sits down before the chief meal of the day, 
the rijsttafel (rice table), so called from the principal 
dish, an enormous mountain of steamed rice, accom- 
panied by morsels of buffalo-beef, butcher's beef, game, 
fish, krupuk, 1 dendeng, 2 duck's eggs cooked, salted, and 
pickled ; mashed potatoes, scraps of fowl's liver 
swimming in coconut butter and seasoned with pimento; 
yellowish-green sauces, strongly spiced, and various 
peppers : in a word, a meal of so many different 
elements and often of such unexpected appearance that 
the newly-landed European is at first repelled ; but the 
colonial mixes with his rice all or any of these 
ingredients, which excite his jaded palate, and thanks 
to them is nourished principally upon the rice, whose 
monotony would sicken him if he were to eat it alone. 
The midday meal is generally crowned by a dessert of 
the finest fruits of the Indies ; bananas, mangoes, 
mangustams and shaddocks, which are sold everywhere 
at low prices. The dourian, greatly prized by the 
natives, is never admitted to European tables on account 
of its fetid odour ; but any one who is not too disgusted 
by it will eat the fruit in private and at a moderate 
distance from inhabited places, in order not to annoy 
people by the horrible stench.3 At four o'clock tea is 
taken, with pastry or a few hors d'oeuvres ; at eight, a 

1 Squares of buffalo derma fried in oil. 

2 Strips of meat dried in the sun and fried in oil ; biltong (Boer). 

3 The famous Raffles had quite a particular detestation for the 
dourian, according to the Malay writer, Abdullah ben Abdelkader. 




COFFEE PLANTATION, JAVA, WITH BUNGALOW AND FACTORY. 




MAKING A GARDEN IN THE VIRGIN FOREST, JAVA. 



To face p. 180 



r 



EUROPEANS IN JAVA 181 

final cold collation, of which few eat very plentifully, 
owing to the repeated snacks and meals taken during 
the day. 

The ordinary drink at table is water or tea ; at the 
beginning of a meal the men take a strong dose of pahit 
(a bitters), which is as bad as port in its effects on the 
liver, and is apt to produce dysentery, which the daily 
use of rice prevents or alleviates. 

When the Dutch colonist entertains — which he does 
with the most sumptuous hospitality — the dishes and 
wines are European ; the wines of the best vintages, and 
the dishes perfectly prepared. 

The Dutch colonist is not obliged, like the French 
colonist in Indo-China, to find a Chinese cook ; z for the 
Javanese woman, who is gentle, intelligent, attentive, and 
assimilative, very quickly learns to act as a cook, a 
chamber-maid, or first-class washerwoman, as she is by 
nature the most affectionate and attentive of wet-nurses 
or babus (ayahs). In a house containing one or two 
children, where the parents receive and maintain a 
certain social position, seven servants are required : 
butler, cook, cook's help, chamber-maids, coachman, 
groom, gardener, " boy-panka," 2 babus (ayahs), &c. In 
the larger cities they are paid at the rate of 12 to 15 
florins per month, and expected to find their own food.3 

x In Java the Chinese dislike taking service with Europeans : a 
Chinese cook or boy cannot be obtained for less than 15 to 25 
florins per month. 

2 Punkah coolie ; the punkah or panka being a great rectangular 
fan suspended from the ceiling, which is swung from without by 
means of a cord. This device, known to the Arabs in the tenth 
century, and probably earlier, is now being replaced here and there 
by electric fans and ventilators of all kinds. 

3 These servants cannot, as a rule, do anything beyond their own 
special duties. Thus besides the mandur (major-domo), the kokki 
(cook), the babu (chamber-maid, nursemaid), and the djait (tailor), 
there is the djongos (boy, valet de chambre) who is indispensable, the 
kusir (coachman), the tukang kuda (groom), the tukang lampu (lamp- 
boy), the tukang kebon (gardener), the tukang minotu (washing-man), 
&c. The mandur has no particular duties, but is regarded as 
attached to the service of his master. 



182 JAVA 

Very faithful and much attached to their employers, 
and especially to be trusted with young children and all 
that concerns them, they naturally do not possess all the 
virtues. The colonist, who rings for his boy to hand 
him an article just out of his reach, or to pick up his 
handkerchief, will readily accuse him of laziness ; for- 
getting that the torrid climate, which makes him so 
apathetic, has its effect upon the native also ; that his 
own indolence, his habit (quickly acquired) of acting like 
a little potentate, the dimensions of his spacious dwelling, 
the refinements and luxuries of his life in a country as 
yet poorly organised from that point of view, all mean a 
heavy burden upon his servants, and call for a positive 
genius for organisation on the part of the mistress of the 
house. One is obliged, however, to admit a lack of thrift 
on the part of the Javanese " boy " who, like his brothers 
in Indo-China, always commences the day by begging 
" Madame " to make him " a little advance." It is the 
proper thing to grant this request, while stipulating that 
he shall repay these sums at the rate of 2 or 3 florins per 
month. This he does most scrupulously, but as he is 
always obtaining fresh loans he is almost always in debt, 
however wisely one advises him. Very sensible of good 
treatment, the Javanese is keenly wounded by a coarse 
insult or by bad treatment. Too weak to rebel openly, 
he is capable of revenging himself secretly in a very 
dangerous manner ; for the dysentery and the intestinal 
disease which only removal from Java will cure, appears 
often to be the work of a vindictive servant. 1 

But such matters as this are the exception ; an excep- 
tion nearly always the result of unpardonable demands 
on the part of the master. The colonists complain a 
great deal of their domestics, because they only too often 
expect from them, in return for a minimum of considera- 

1 As to Dutch habits in Java (the house, its choice situation, 
arrangement, and furnishing ; every-day customs ; servants ; hygienic 
precautions ; food ; domestic economy, &c), see the book by Mme. 
J. M. T. Catenius-Van der Meiden, Ons huis in Indie (Our House in 
the Indies). Samarang, 1908, 8vo. 



EUROPEANS IN JAVA 183 

tion and justice on their own part, twenty times the zeal 
and obedience that one would ever dare to hope for in a 
European servant. u As for the virtues one demands in a 
servant/' says Figaro to Almaviva, " does your Excellency 
know many masters who would be worthy to act as 
valets ? " More than one Javanese mandur might make 
the same retort to his blanda (Dutch) lord and master. 

The Dutch planter is not only hospitable — in which 
the French planter resembles him ; his hospitality is 
notable for a rare cordiality, delicacy, and generosity. 
To ensure the welfare and the happiness of his guest 
is a sacred duty as well as a pleasure. 

His hospitality was famous for its ostentation some 
twenty-five or thirty years ago, when the Dutch were few 
in Java. Their coffee and sugar were then unrivalled on 
the European market ; in ten or fifteen years they used 
to amass fortunes of many millions of florins, and 
delighted in sharing their prosperity with all those sur- 
rounding them : by means of sumptuous feasts, and a 
house open to all comers. 

Those golden years have passed or are passing ; and 
the Dutch in Java often lament the fact, concluding that 
they are far poorer now, that the colony is no longer 
bringing them in any considerable degree of wealth. 
The truth of the matter is very different. What is 
happening in all Europe is happening in Java : there is 
more money than ever in circulation, but it is divided 
amongst a much greater number of owners. There is 
more general wealth, but fewer large private fortunes. 

Although the coffees of Java meet with a very severe 
competition with those of Brazil, the Malay Peninsula, 
&c. ; and although the manufacture of beet sugar has 
caused the price of cane sugar to fall from 1 6 to 7 J 
florins per picul, while the establishment of a greater 
number of colonists, who compete one with another, has 
diminished the profits of each, the extensive development 
of agriculture and the industries which arise therefrom has 
resulted in a great increase of wealth all the island over. 

Formerly the Dutch entertained sumptuously, but with 



184 JAVA 

simplicity and cordiality ; the mistress of the house was 
able to entertain all the more in that she used not, in the 
semi-intimacy of such receptions, to put away her com- 
fortable sarong-kabaya ; to-day there is more ceremony, 
and also more boredom ; since there is an inevitable 
tendency abroad to remain at home, and not to 
torment oneself in the tropical heat with the corset or 
frock-coat in order to exchange a few stale remarks with 
people who are semi-strangers. As people are forced to 
spend less, they are less inclined to make sacrifices to the 
mundane existence save within calculated limits of time 
and expense ; for which reason social life is more 
lethargic, and less showy than of old. 

This does not mean that the social life of the East 
Indies is parsimonious or gloomy ; it is far from being 
that. One might rather, indeed, reproach the Javanese 
Dutch for their prodigality, as one might the majority 
of colonists, and their tendency to accept salaries, profits, 
or dividends, as the easily won profits of an intangible 
capital : so that after leading a full and careless life they 
are often scarcely richer than when they commenced, or 
at least far poorer than they hoped ; but they no longer 
receive except on certain days and at fixed hours ; one ball 
a year is given instead of two ; and individual entertain- 
ments are rapidly giving way to collective entertainments, 
which are more impersonal and more banal, given by 
the societies or clubs to which every one of position 
belongs. In every city there are clubs and associations 
of every kind ; lecture societies, musical and choral 
societies, ladies' clubs, tennis clubs, and rinking clubs ; 
and the Europeans not only patronise the theatre 
(comedy and light opera being the favourites) but also 
give amateur dramatic performances themselves. The 
Locomotif of Samarang, the Sourabaiasch Handelsblad, 
and the Java-Bode of Batavia always contain in a 
prominent position reports of successful and crowded 
performances of some lyrical or comedy company from 
Europe. 

The colonists, in short, amuse themselves, or try to do 



EUROPEANS IN JAVA 185 

so, as well as they can, in order to vary the inevitable 
monotony of life in an overpowering climate, and 
because such distractions are regarded, from the hygienic 
point of view, as the best preventive of neurasthenia and 
the unavoidable moral depression borne of a torrid 
atmosphere. 



Putting aside the rigours of the climate, and the 
division of the large fortunes of a former time into 
smaller, the real charm of life in Java is lessened, as 
in so many colonies, by a lack of stability, a social 
impermanence, which was far less obvious forty years 
ago. Formerly there were fewer colonists, but they lived 
and died often without a thought of returning to their 
native country. A definite decision upon this point gave 
existence a greater serenity ; the organisation of life 
seemed more stable, more secure. To-day there are 
colonists in plenty ; but although the climate of Java is 
far more supportable than that of India or Indo-China. 
both planters and officials dwell in Java only in a 
transitory fashion, while waiting for the pension or the 
fortune which will allow them to return to Europe. 

In the long run they become a little weary of the full, 
easy existence ; perhaps a little purposeless ; although 
they regret it bitterly as soon as they return to the con- 
ventional, parsimonious, over-strenuous life of Europe. 
They submit, with increasing reluctance, to the necessity 
of parting with their children while the latter are still 
quite young, so that they may be educated in the mother- 
country, and grow up to be useful men and good Dutch- 
men. Later on they fear for these children the maladies 
inevitable to the climate ; maladies which they them- 
selves have not escaped ; the more so because their off- 
spring have rarely the stamina of their parents. For 
although it is quite true that Java is a country in which 
the European can acclimatise himself, and can live very 
comfortably, he cannot reproduce his race there any 
better than in other tropical countries. 



186 JAVA 

Despite many arguments for and against the possibility, 
the union between Holland and Java seems destined to 
remain sterile, or to produce none but children unable 
to resist the climate, who often die during the first few 
years after birth. At first sight the remedy seemed to 
consist in going to Europe in search of a fine, courageous, 
vigorous specimen of womanhood to continue or give 
fresh life to one's line ; the thing is easy to-day, for 
marriage in the colonies is nowadays getting to be 
regarded, even for girls of the best middle-class families, 
as a good settlement in life, and a species of heroism 
more tempting than dangerous. 

So once again fine children are seen in plenty ; but 
the mother, who has known all the luxuries of life in her 
native country, is so overcome by home-sickness when 
the time comes to send her beloved little flock overseas 
that it is not uncommon for the whole family to return. 
There is thus a constant going and coming between the 
mother-country and the colony ; the latter consumes the 
energies of the former, and the former consumes the 
money which those energies earn as payment. 

Is there danger here for Holland or for Java ? Less, 
perhaps, than appears, if the new-comers will only benefit 
by the experience and the efforts of those who are 
leaving. 

VI. 

Lastly, there is perhaps one efficient remedy ; a very 
radical remedy, it is true, but one well known to the 
pioneers of the Dutch power in Java : I mean the cross- 
ing of races. The question, I need hardly say, has 
arisen in Java as in all colonies ; and although half- 
breeds are more numerous in Java than in British India, 
and are not the object of the same biting contempt as in 
English society — a contempt which elsewhere tends to 
become modified when fortune comes to hide the ming- 
ling of races — it would be an exaggeration to say that 
they are looked upon with favour. Holland looks upon 
them sourly, and the little cliques of the "fashionable 



EUROPEANS IN JAVA 187 

Dutch world" make a practice, where colonists from 
Java return to their native land, of investigating their 
pedigrees, in order to assure themselves that no brown 
blood contaminates their veins. 

The half-breeds are accused in Java, as everywhere, of 
having more of the assimilative faculty than of actual 
intelligence, and also of having inherited the vices of 
both races. It would nearly always be more just, in 
making this latter complaint, to say that they nearly 
always combine the vices of two individuals ; for this 
mingling of blood is too often the result of a brutal 
temperament which refuses to be guided by anything 
except its own desires ; and the production of such half- 
breeds is a kind of devolution, an evolution in a down- 
ward direction, such as that which occurs when a 
wealthy and sensual Oriental marries the first European 
girl he meets. 

But it has often happened, in the Dutch Indies as 
elsewhere, that men of high intelligence and calm reason- 
ing powers, having come to a full knowledge of the 
refined and gentle races among which they lived, have 
entered into closer relations with them by a marriage of 
which the sons have done the greatest honour to both 
peoples who were thus reincarnated in them. To the 
great name of the ethnologist Wilken, Holland could 
to-day add several which have helped to make her 
better known to the outer world ; names of men whose 
subtle penetration and high intelligence perhaps owe 
more than is supposed to a Javanese or Malay mother 
or grandmother. 

The greatest danger to be feared from the crossings of 
races is that the individual may add to his parent's vices 
a bad education, or none at all. The father, who very 
often wishes to break with the mother, and has no idea 
of encumbering himself with a child, may wish to be 
rid of both together, without inquiring what becomes of 
them ; they relapse into poverty — that evil counsellor 
and worse schoolmistress ; and being thus abandoned to 
the native race, they often bring to it nothing but 



188 JAVA 

a hatred of the injustice which they have suffered 
from. 

The Dutch State has so well understood that herein 
lies a source of weakness and a loss of moral authority 
on the part of the whites that no sooner is a half- 
breed child recognised by his father than it counts him, 
with true liberalism, as a pure-blooded Dutchman, and 
enregisters and educates him as such, letting no difference 
appear between him and his more fortunate brothers ; 
and it then seeks to marry him to the daughter of a 
colonist, or an official, so as to give back to the white 
race what has been taken from it, and to fortify it by the 
admixture of a new stock. 

The only great danger that may arise from ethnic 
cross-breeds lies in the fact that miscegenation is apt to 
result in marriages founded not on too great an in- 
equality, but on too great a mental difference between 
the two parties. Again, the continual marriage of 
Dutchmen with natives would sever one of the strongest 
bonds which ties the European to his native land ; 
would create a race of half-breeds so numerous that 
they would prefer to live apart, and after having deprived 
Holland of her boldest sons would finally deprive her 
of her colony. 1 At the present moment this solution 
would hardly appear desirable either for Java or for 
Holland, or any other colonial power ; and the moral 
and equitable practice of mixed marriages is therefore 
not likely to prove more than a very ineffectual remedy 
for a low birth-rate, or for the excessive mortality which 
afflicts the European family under the tropics. 

1 This is exactly what occurred in Brazil. Some of the great 
feudal nobles, after their power was broken, together with many 
landless gentlemen and officers, and thousands of men-at-arms, 
took women of fierce and warlike tribes of Indians. Natural 
selection, based on colour-preference, has, in the case of the aristo- 
cracy, produced a virile and energetic white race. — [Trans.] 



CHAPTER IX 

THE ADMINISTRATION IN JAVA 

The important position of the European officials in Java. — Their 
restricted numbers are due to the form of government which 
obtains in the Dutch East Indies : the Dutch govern the native 
through his own chiefs. — II. Relations between the native and 
European administrations, — III. The hierarchy, privileges, and 
importance of the European official. — IV. Complaints against 
the officials made by colonists and natives. 



I. 

If the colonists, the producers of wealth, are one of the 
essential factors of the prosperity of the Dutch Indies, 
the officials who ensure the material order without which 
wealth could not be created are, one might say, the 
regulators of wealth ; regulators in many ways and in 
variable degrees, but whose number is more limited than 
one can well conceive if compared with the total of the 
colonial bureaucracy of France, or even with that of 
England ; rather less than four hundred of them suffi- 
cing to govern these immense possessions. 

This result is both the work of circumstances and of 
the political genius of Holland. When the Dutch came 
to the Indies, they were too weak to conquer, maintain, 
and overthrow by force of arms, and were desirous 
above all of practical results, to be obtained at the least 
possible expense. So soon as they had established their 
commercial domination, and obtained from the chiefs, 
whether by or against their will, a determined royalty or 
tribute in the produce of the country, to the exclusion of 
all other Europeans, they were already satisfied, without 

189 



190 JAVA 

troubling themselves as to the manner in which these 
chiefs governed the natives. By miracles of concrete 
prudence and delicate diplomacy they succeeded in 
building up, in all parts of the world, a gigantic empire 
of which they could barely, in case of revolt, have 
occupied by force the twentieth part. Their system 
of non-interference in the government of the natives 
appeared to safeguard them for ever against any such 
attempt. By the logic of events, as soon as the enor- 
mous colonial empire of the Netherlands was brought 
back by the conquests of other rivals, among others the 
English, to proportions more normal in their very 
splendour, their domination over the Archipelago, which 
had been entirely commercial and indirect, began to 
grow more of a political and effective control. In Java 
particularly, where the Company had established its 
warehouses and its offices, the authority of its employees 
became more sensible and less discreet ; to the policy of 
their nation they added their own, which consisted in 
gaining a hold upon the native in order to bring greater 
pressure to bear upon him. But the better officials 
began to foresee that the Javanese, shorn by his 
chiefs for the benefit of the European, whom he hardly 
knew, and for their own as well, and governed with a 
despotism and a greed that were often revolting, would 
finally reject the double burden. Truly enough, when the 
Company failed rebellion broke loose upon every hand. 

The Crown, in replacing the Company, governed pru- 
dently enough at the outset ; remaining, as the Company 
had remained, behind the chiefs and the established 
usages ; but well aware that these chiefs, if they were 
not very closely supervised, would compromise its power. 

This insensible and stealthy transformation of the 
Government into an actual protectorate was above all 
the work of Daendels and of Raffles. Until their time 
the native chiefs and princes had very vaguely been 
the partners, and some the very independent friends 
of the Dutch ; but under them they became honoured 
officials, yet subordinate to the power of Europe. 



THE ADMINISTRATION IN JAVA 191 

Daendels, sword in hand, undertook to chastise those 
who resisted, and to reduce the two most powerful 
princes, those of Surakarta and Djokjakarta, to a strict 
vassalage. The various regents, the inheritors of appan- 
ages, titles, wealth, prerogatives, and secular abuses, who, 
their royalties in kind or money once paid to Holland, 
considered themselves fully as independent as these two 
sovereigns, learned from the " Dutch Napoleon " that 
they held their positions not by heredity, but by royal 
appointment ; that they were only imposing officials, and 
therefore removable if they administered badly. This 
fundamental principle of birth once being granted, Daen- 
dels forced them to agree that henceforth they should be 
always appointed by Holland, but with regard to the 
rights of birth, and also the rights of merit, which 
latter might outweigh the former ; that they should all 
take the oath of fidelity to the King at the hands of his 
representative, the Governor-General, and that they 
must administer the land according to the royal instruc- 
tions, and the advice of the Resident, or European 
official, who would be placed beside each of them as the 
means of control. Daendels also endeavoured to soften 
the crudity of an innovation so disastrous to the dignity 
of the chiefs by covering them with honours ; by regu- 
lating very minutely (by the decree of 1808) their hono- 
rific prerogatives, and questions of precedence ; and by 
pretending, with a masterly moderation, that he wished 
to make them the associates of his power. In the very 
year when he struck this terrible blow, he united the 
greater part of Java in a huge conference, at which he 
discussed with them the needs of the country. 

Raffles, for England, continued the policy of Daendels ; 
he strengthened the measures against the princes of the 
Vorstenlanden, which were always disturbed, and at every 
turn he allowed to be seen his fixed intention of depriving 
the regents of all political power, and of allowing them 
to retain, together with their show of prestige, only the 
control of the local police, under strict European super- 
vision. If they were incompetent or unworthy, he had 



192 JAVA 

no other means to ensure the security of Europeans, a 
little justice for the natives, and peace throughout the 
Indies. To the firmness of which he had already given 
proof he added a scrupulous respect for the questions 
of precedence so dear to the Javanese. The native chiefs 
did not dare to manifest their discontent. 

But they were nevertheless terribly chagrined by so 
complete a downfall ; when the Dutch resumed possession 
of their colonies in 1818 there was so much discontent 
abroad that the Dutch Government, which had firmly 
decided to benefit by the eoitp d'etat which had been 
effected under the French and English domination, and 
was also greatly enlightened as to the moral and political 
value of the regents, was inclined to reproach them 
personally for having abandoned the cause of Holland 
during the last twenty years with such absolute content ; 
yet it wished to pacify them. In 1820 their position was 
definitely determined by law : they remained officials, 
appointed, paid, and at need dismissed by the King, and 
were obliged to take the advice and follow the counsels 
of the Dutch Residents ; but they remained the highest 
personages in the native world, and the intermediaries 
through whom Holland communicated with that world ; 
moreover, they were granted titles and large pensions in 
order to repair their prestige. 

This policy had good results, for in 1825, at the time of 
the war with Java, which held in suspense the fate of the 
Dutch domination, the regents did not stir in aid of the 
Dipo Negoro. 

Moreover, the Dutch Government, in order to accustom 
the regents to their new position, had acted with a 
deliberation born of reflection, and a prudent spirit of 
conciliation, which it has always found successful ; being 
less anxious to decree a sudden and absurd uniformity 
than to obtain it in the long run. The regents were first 
appointed in the more submissive provinces ; and the 
Government in almost every case took such care to 
respect the principles of high birth and heredity that 
it did not really seem that there had been any break 



THE ADMINISTRATION IN JAVA 193 

with the past. Only a few individual cases betrayed the 
revolution accomplished. Then came the turn of other 
provinces ; the regents of the Preangers, who were 
wealthy, influential, and very independent, were subjected 
to the general rule only after the year 1870, and with their 
own consent, which was obtained by skilful negotiations. 

The pensions also followed the fluctuations of a skilful 
and entirely opportunist policy. They were large at the 
outset ; then considerably smaller. They were larger in 
the case of those from whom the Government had much 
to fear or to hope ; small in the case of regents who 
were not men of action. The regents of the Preangers 
received at the outset some ^3,600 a year, or 3,600 florins 
per month ; a sum which, added to a handsome bonus 
during the period of forced cultivation, often meant an 
assured revenue of -£8,000 to -£10,000 a year, which was 
enough to console them for a good many things. 
During the second generation the pensions were reduced ; 
to-day the regents do not draw more than 1,000 or 1,200 
florins per month, or about .£1,000 to ^1,200 per annum, 
and the bonus is reduced to ^320 or ^400. Only one 
regent is still drawing ^3,600 ; the regent of Tjiand- 
jur, 1 who is a proud and intelligent individual of 
great influence. 

Enviable distinctions have also been established among 
the regents by means of various titles which have been 
conferred upon them, and which vary with their merits. 
The most modest regents are Raden Tumenggung ; next 
in rank comes the title of Raden Adipati ; finally 
Pangeran or Prince — a title which the Dutch have only 
conferred once in twenty years, for exceptional services, 
and which carries with it a very great prestige. At the 
outset the regents, from the heights of their hereditary 
titles, affected a certain disdain for this innovation, but 
to-day they are highly prized. 2 

1 Or Tandyur. 

3 A list of the numerous native titles and their meaning will be 
found in L. W. C. Van den Berg's De inlandsche rangen en titels op 
Java en Madoera, 2nd ed. (The Hague, 1902, large 8vo), 

*4 



194 JAVA 

Finally, having bridled the regents with the bridles of 
money and vanity, the Dutch still hold them by fear. 
The son of a regent, if he be incapable or evilly disposed, 
is deliberately removed from the succession, and may be 
replaced either by a brother or a close relation, which 
flatters the wholly aristocratic prejudices of Javanese, 
or — and this upsets them not a little — by a petty noble or 
a plebeian, who has won his spurs during his career, has 
proved himself, and by merit alone is sometimes raised 
from the rank of mantri to that of regent. The mantri 
is more feared than any ; and the appointment of one 
seems so scandalous to the regents that the dread of it 
incites them to prove themselves possessed of a certain 
amount of administrative zeal. 



II. 

To-day all Java is ruled by a double system of adminis- 
tration — European and native — the two being juxtaposed, 
or one might say superimposed. Every province or Resi- 
dency has, at its head, a regent, who governs alone in 
the eyes of the natives, with whom he alone has direct 
relations, according to their religious or political customs 
— their adat. This regent cuts a great figure ; he holds 
a kind of court, boasts of a golden parasol, and presides 
at assemblies ; but beside him is always the European 
Resident, whose part should be solely that of counsellor, 
and who, by an ingenious fiction, unobtrusively holds 
the actual power. 

The Resident is, in short, the " elder brother " of the 
regent, which allows him to enjoy the same outward 
consideration, always to take the right hand of the regent 
at all ceremonies, and, on account of the hierarchic order 
of the Javanese family, to give his counsel the force of 
an order in cases of disagreement with the "younger 
brother." Wherever the Dutch policy is fully applied 
the Resident treats the regent with brotherly regard, and 
endeavours to compensate him for any suppression of 
his individual wishes by means of honorific advantages. 



THE ADMINISTRATION IN JAVA 195 

The province can do nothing without the Resident, who 
is, so to speak, the veiled monarch, whose activity over- 
flows into every department: politics, justice, agriculture, 
education, &c, are all equally his business ; but everything 
is carried out through the agency of the regent. 

Subject to the Resident in the various divisions of the 
province are Assistant Residents, who work in conjunction 
with the other regents. The latter should by rights take 
precedence over the Assistant Residents, but in reality the 
latter play the same part and assume the same position 
as the Residents, and in his province each Assistant has 
the same extensive powers as the Resident, and need not 
refer to the latter. 

Below the Residencies and Assistant Residencies in 
importance are the districts ; each district capital con- 
taining a native wedono, or a sort of prefect, who is under 
the supervision of a Dutch " comptroller." The various 
portions of the district are governed by assistant wedonos 
of the first or second class, who are under the eye of 
probationary comptrollers. Every native chief, of what- 
ever degree, is aided in his task by a mantri ; a pro- 
bationary native official, who generally comes of the 
nobility, and is often the younger son of a regent, and is 
in this manner broken in to the conduct of business and 
serves an apprenticeship to his career. The mantri lives 
in the house of the chief, must obey his orders implicitly, 
and is usually destined to some special service — irrigation, 
coffee, opium, the police, teaching, &c. 

At the base of the system is the lura (Dutch spelling 
loerah), the mayor or chief or headman of the kampong 
or dessa ; the only official who is elected by those under 
his administration. His appointment, however, can be 
annulled by the European comptroller if he is incapable, 
an opium-smoker, or subject to any serious infirmity 
which is likely to diminish his reputation or his activity. 

At the summit of the pyramid is the Governor-General 
of the Dutch East Indies, who is appointed by the 
Sovereign, and is himself almost a king in his own 
domain, so great are his discretionary powers. He is 



196 JAVA 

obliged to apply the law voted by the Dutch Chambers 
affecting the colony, as well as royal decrees, but he may 
at need amend, complete, or hold them back by the 
promulgation of orders. He is commander-in-chief of 
the army and the naval forces ; supreme comptroller, in 
the last resort, of every branch of the administration ; he 
declares war or makes peace with native princes ; has the 
rights of pardon and amnesty ; appoints candidates to 
all civil or military employments, whether European or 
native ; signs foreigners' permits or passports, or decrees 
of expulsion from the island ; and for the last forty 
years has undertaken to protect, develop, and slowly to 
emancipate the native masses. This omnipotent per- 
sonage, who unites in his own person the executive and 
(in certain cases) the legislative power, is limited in the 
exercise of his powers only by the Council of the Indies, 
except that the Sovereign has the power to call upon him 
to retire, and the Chambers can impeach him if his rule 
appear unsatisfactory. 

The Council of the Indies (Raad van N ederlandsch- 
Indie), composed of a vice-president and four members, 
is, after the Governor-General, and in conjunction with 
him, the highest expression of the European power in 
the colony. Although in certain cases prescribed by the 
law the Governor is obliged to follow the advice of the 
Council, the latter has in general only a consultative 
power ; the Governor, who is solely responsible to the 
Sovereign and the Chambers, may dispense with its advice. 

The Governor-General has under his authority five 
directors, or ministers in a small way, entrusted respec- 
tively with the departments of Justice, Finances, Public 
Works, the Marine, and the Army. The meeting of these 
directors in Council assists him to deal with the various 
affairs in each department. It often happens that one 
of these directors is united by close family ties to the 
Governor-General, which sometimes gives rise to com- 
plaints of nepotism ; but the selections are nearly 
always so happy as to be justified by the merits of the 
director selected. Beneath the Governor and his Secre- 



THE ADMINISTRATION IN JAVA 197 

tariat-General, on whom their future depends, are the 
active officials of the system : the Residents, Assistant 
Residents, with their secretary-comptrollers and pro- 
bationary comptrollers, an official whose equivalent we 
should seek in vain elsewhere — the " adviser " or coun- 
sellor for native affairs (Adviseur voor Inlandsche Zakeri)* 
and philological and archaeological officials, of whom we 
shall speak further on. 

After its long period of sometimes necessary inertia, 
the Dutch Government began to realise that three-fourths 
of the revolts which broke out among the natives had 
their source less in regrettable examples of injustice than 
in instances of tactlessness and indifference on the part 
of Europeans who were absolutely ignorant of the beliefs, 
traditions, and legitimate susceptibilities of the natives. 
The most costly and bloody of these misunderstandings 
was the rebellion of Dipo Negoro, who, it seems, was 
unendurably exasperated by the insulting behaviour of an 
incompetent Resident, whence followed the Javanese War. 

The State also began to realise the value of a know- 
ledge of native idioms to its officials, and became aware 
of the gratuitous labours of those who had studied 
them ; such as the long research of Kern, in Sanscrit 
and the comparative philology of the languages of the 
Indian Archipelago ; of Roorda van Eysinga, Grashuis, 
J. Pijnappel, Von Dewal, H. Neubronner van der Tunk 
in Malay ; of Cornets de Groot, J. F. C. Gericke, 
Roorda, Vreede, Poensen, in Javanese ; of Matthes in 
Macassar and Bugi ; and of many more. In 1878, 
accordingly, it appointed officials to study the languages 
of the Dutch East Indian Archipelago, 2 selected from 
among the doctors in the philosophy and letters of the 
East Indian Archipelago,3 who had obtained their degrees 

x There is also a counsellor for Arab affairs (Adviseur voor 
Arabische Zaken). To-day the honorary holder of the post is an 
Arab, Seyyid Ousman bin Abdullah bin Akiel bin Yakya Alawi. 

2 Ambtenaren voor de broefening der Indische talen. 

3 Doctoren in de iaal-en letterkunde van den OosUIndischen 
archipel. 



198 JAVA 

at the University of Leyden. It assigned to each, with 
an honorific title and excellent pay — from ^300 to .£1,000 
a year with an annual increase of ^48 for beginners — a 
definite section of the territory of the East Indies, with 
instructions to gain a perfect knowledge of its language, 
institutions, manners and customs ; to compile a dic- 
tionary of the language, write its history and make known 
its beliefs and aspirations. They were given seven years 
of profound and peaceful study (but could obtain an 
extension of time) in which to produce a work from 
which all would benefit. 1 To this foundation, so admirable 
in its intelligent utilitarianism, we owe a large number of 
manuals or scientific works, which have made the vast 
Netherlands Indies a country known to its governors as 
few are known. The general scope and the reputation of 
this work has crossed the bounds of the colony, and has 
given Dutch philologists, archaeologists, and historians a 
high rank in the world of scholarship. It would have 
given them a very different rank had they written in 
an idiom better known than Dutch. Their ardent 
patriotism has led them always to use their mother- 
tongue. Honourable as the motive is, one can but 
regret their decision in the interests of universal science. 
It is also to be regretted that other countries are ignorant 
of this enterprise, and of the scholars who place the 
highest and most disinterested culture at the service of 
the most direct and practical utilitarianism. 

The adviser combines with the technical knowledge of 
the official philologist a political role which gives a still 
higher value to his knowledge : knowing the native 
mind through and through, it is his advice that is 
requested in all reforms of real importance, in order 
that the obstacles which might be encountered may be 
foreseen. He is the moral bond between the aristocratic 
native, whose aspirations he knows by intuition or 

1 Among these official linguists and archaeologists the much- 
lamented Dr. J. L. A. Brandes (1857-1905), whose remarkable and 
uninterrupted work did the greatest credit to the scheme, deserves 
especial mention. 



THE ADMINISTRATION IN JAVA 199 

divination better than any one, and the European Power, 
which wishes to understand them, nearly always realises 
them as far as possible, and at least endeavours to avoid 
any conflict. 

When the official selected is able to play his part to 
the full, he is able, in spite of his purely consultative 
attitude, to render the very greatest services to the two 
parties. When the adviser is a scholar as universally 
recognised as Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, to-day Professor 
f of Arabic in the University of Leyden, with his funda- 
mental knowledge of Islam and its various aspects 
throughout the Archipelago, we can understand what 
weight his advice must have with the Dutch Government 
concerning the difficult handling of the Mahomedan 
masses. 1 

It is very regrettable that we Frenchmen, who are 
always having misunderstandings with the natives of 
our colonies, have no scholars of real repute to use 
their knowledge for the benefit of present realities, nor 
an administration sufficiently liberal to admit that the 
lucid and disinterested ideas of these supposed theorists 
might be capable of furnishing the basis of a wise and 
conciliatory policy. 

III. 

Holland asks much of her European officials, and also 
gives them much ; and enables them to cut a worthy 
figure beside their luxury-loving "younger brothers/' 
the native officials. 

The Governor-General draws a salary of over .£14,000, 
with certain allowances for the expense of public 
appearances, &c, a palace at Weltevreden and another 
at Buitenzorg. At Tjipanas, on one of the spurs of 
Gedei, at a height of 5,700 feet, in an ideal climate, 
where the thermometer falls in the morning to 50 and 
rarely exceeds 71 even at midday, he has a country 

1 Dr. G. A. T. Hagen, an official philologist, has replaced Dr. 
Snouck Hurgronje as " adviser." 



200 JAVA 

pleasure-house in a great English park, in which the 
most magnificent vegetation of the tropics are mingled 
with the trees of the north : pines, cypress, chestnuts, 
oaks. His household retinue, although simplified on 
account of his own personal simplicity of taste, is 
semi-royal as regards the etiquette which obtains. 

The members of the Council of the Indies draw 
over £3,000 ; the Residents from £1,000 to £1,800, 
according to rank ; Assistant Residents from £720 to 
£1,000 ; and comptrollers from £360 to ^480. All are 
provided with houses, which in the case of the 
Residents and Assistant Residents are often princely 
dwellings. The pensions of these officials, after twenty- 
five years of service, amount to half their salaries. We 
must remember, however, that these officials have to 
furnish the interior of their houses, and that in a 
luxurious fashion ; they must keep up a considerable 
household, so that it is hardly possible for them to 
economise : lastly, they can obtain leave only once in 
ten years, and while it lasts can only draw one-third of 
their pay. 

Such advantages as the service possesses are as a 
rule thoroughly deserved, having regard to the serious 
preparation which these officials undergo, and the 
scrupulous system of selection of which they are the 
outcome. 

From the day when Holland resolved to organise her 
colonial empire in place of exploiting it, as she had 
previously done, she endeavoured to employ the most 
carefully trained and most irreproachable class of agents. 

In 1864, that a class of officials might be available 
who should be fully worthy of their mission, a Royal 
Preparatory College was founded at Leyden, having 
at its head the most eminent directors. Fully persuaded 
that uniformity in training is almost invariably a certain 
if unconscious means of retrogression, the Government 
did not make it compulsory for candidates to pass 
through the College ; it was enough that they could 
meet the demands of an annual competitive examina- 



THE ADMINISTRATION IN JAVA 201 

tion. The Municipal Institute of Delft competed so 
successfully with the Royal College that the State shortly 
abandoned the somewhat onerous and, to its thinking, 
equally useless luxury of a special Colonial College. 

The Institute of Delft was too practical and common- 
place for some, and suffered in its turn from the 
competition of the University of Leyden. It has now 
disappeared, and it is the Faculty of Philosophy of the 
said University alone that now and henceforth in- 
structs the student in Chinese, Arabic, Turkish, Persian, 
Javanese, Malay, Madurese, the Old Javanese or Kawi, 
and the various dialects of the isles of Sunda ; the 
comparative grammars of the languages of the islands 
of the Archipelago ; also ethnography, geography, 
Colonial history, and the laws, religion, and civilisation 
of the Mahomedans, which subjects are all essential 
to any one wishing to reach the true mentality of these 
races. Nothing, as we see, has been forgotten that is 
likely to make of the student a true scholar, and a 
man as well fitted as possible to his future task. The 
professors, who are ex-administrators, ex-missionaries, 
or retired official scholars, who have passed their lives 
in the Indian Archipelago, combine a consummate 
practical experience with an often remarkable degree of 
pure scholarship. The knowledge of native tongues 
and institutions is a point the more firmly insisted 
upon because of the Government's conviction that 
without a knowledge of his language there can never 
be a real understanding between the native and the 
European. 

Every year the Colonial Minister ascertains the 
number of places vacant in the Indies ; and every year 
there is a competitive examination known as the Grand 
Examination of Officials (Groot-ambtevaars-examen), 
which is held simultaneously in The Hague and in 
Batavia. No agent of the Government in the Indian 
Archipelago, excepting the Governor-General, the 
President of the High Court, and two or three others, 
whose nomination is left to the royal initiative, can 



202 JAVA 

evade this examination, which ensures in all a serious 
weight of scholarship and knowledge. 

Those who do well in the examinations are placed 
at the disposal of the Colonial Minister, who, having 
provided them with the expenses of the voyage, places 
them at the disposal of the Governor-General, who 
appoints them, according to requirements, to obscure 
corners of the Archipelago, in order to judge of their 
quality. There at once they are face to face with 
innumerable duties and responsibilities, for the comp- 
troller, as well as the Resident, although within narrower 
limits, is responsible for everything : justice, police, 
agriculture, public works, the protection of natives, the 
requirements of the colonists in the matter of labour 
and irrigation — all depends on him and his decisions ; 
he is at once a public official, an administrator, and a 
general inspector ; Jie brings to all a convinced, serious 
enthusiasm, a slow and tenacious activity, and a con- 
tinuous application which sometimes takes the form of 
a somewhat irritating and oppressive authoritativeness. 
No one has a finer sense of his duties than the Dutch 
official, nor performs them, as a rule, more scrupu- 
lously. 

IV. 

Yet this ideal official gives rise to more than one 
protest. The colonists reproach him with his attitude 
on the native question : complaining that under the 
pretext of protecting the natives, whose existence has 
only been a matter of interest to the State during the 
last forty years, he assumes an attitude towards them, 
the planters, which is only too often that of a sus- 
picious busybody, as though he saw in them the 
born enemies and the spoliators of the Javanese. The 
native aristocracy, on the other hand, complain that in 
his uncontrollable activity he has encroached upon the 
limited powers of local administration which were left 
to them by the decree of 1820, and that he does as 



THE ADMINISTRATION IN JAVA 203 

little as he can to encourage the Javanese to obtain 
an education, lest he should be forced to allow them 
greater initiative, and, as a consequence, gradually to 
make way for them. They complain that at heart he 
thinks more of domesticating than of uplifting them. 
One undeniable fact is that the administrative staffs, 
the dimensions of which were enormously enlarged at 
the time when Van den Bosch introduced his system, 
have never since been reduced to the normal, as each 
official has been unwilling to sacrifice his place, and 
has been quite ready to create new duties rather than 
abandon his ancient rights. Now the necessity of 
educating the natives, together with the Achinese War, 
has so enlarged the budget during the last three years 
that its equilibrium has at last been lost. Many thought- 
ful people, without being extreme a indigenophiles," are 
of opinion that it would be both politic and financially 
sound gradually to reduce the European staff for the 
benefit of the younger generation which seems so 
anxious to be placed in a position of responsibility, 
and to obtain responsible tasks of any kind to fulfil. 
The finances of the colony would gain by such a 
step ; the natives would regain a little of that spirit of 
initiative which is often denied them, and yet is dis- 
couraged the moment it appears, for fear of further 
claims. By reducing the Residencies from twenty to 
seventeen since 1900, the Government appears to have 
taken this view of matters, and to have entered upon 
this policy with determination. 



CHAPTER X 

THE PRODUCTS OF JAVA 

I. The various phases of the economic history of Java under 
Dutch rule. — II. The Van den Bosch or " forced cultivation " 
system. — III. The help given by the State to free labour. 
The Botanical Institute at Buitenzorg. — IV. Native property 
in land. — V. Native crops : rice, coco-palms, areca- and betel- 
nuts. — VI. Bamboo ; bamboo hats. 



I. 

The economic history of Java covers many fluctuating 
phases corresponding to the fluctuating policies of 
Holland. 

From the beginning of Dutch trade with the East 
to the failure of the Company of Commerce (1796) 
the Dutch practised a policy of economic realisation 
and administrative abstention. They busied themselves 
in obtaining the exclusive monopoly of certain mer- 
chandise whose production was strictly limited, and in 
drawing royalties in kind calculated as much on the 
profit they counted upon making as upon the facility 
of extracting it from the soil ; and that was their whole 
policy. 

The means of cultivation, the improvements which 
might be introduced, the method of collecting the 
royalties — the fate of the native, in short — appeared to 
interest them least of all. 

With the advent of the Government of the Crown 
matters changed ; at the outset, we must admit, for 
economic rather than for moral reasons. 

Holland, in slowly substituting her rule for that of 



THE PRODUCTS OF JAVA 205 

the native chiefs, intended to inherit after them, and 
often with them to profit by the abuses by which they 
lived : taxes of every kind and forced labour or corvees : 
and replaced them as the chief owner of the soil. 

Anxious, however, not to excite revolts by inoppor- 
tune exactions, the Dutch Government endeavoured to 
regularise her demands in a stable fashion, and in one 
as far as possible equitable. 

Matters were pressing, for the price of the spices which 
Holland had hitherto drawn from the Indies had been 
lowered by competition, and her revenue had been greatly 
decreased accordingly. As for rice, she had little more to 
hope from it, either in Java or in other parts of the Archi- 
pelago, as its selling price was low and its transport costly. 

The total evaluation of the wealth of Java demanded 
a considerable time, especially where a reflective people 
like the Dutch was concerned. Consequently it was 
not they who realised the desirable innovation ; this 
was reserved for the English and for Raffles, who, 
following the model of the English colonies, replaced 
the payment of royalties in kind, which were always 
variable, by the payment of a land tax based upon 
the value of the soil, of which half, two-thirds or a 
fifth was payable in kind, according to the aforesaid 
value. The natives lent themselves to this innovation 
without difficulty. If this tax had not only too often 
been trebled by the exactions of the native chiefs, it 
would doubtless have seemed reasonable enough to 
the natives. In 1818, when Holland recovered the 
Dutch Indies, she retained the land tax, but ensured a 
better distribution of it by an attempt at a survey 
which was completed in 1874. In 1827 she decided 
that when the land tax should exceed 10 florins a 
third only should be paid in kind, and the remaining 
two-thirds in gold or silver. 

Daendels had had the welfare of Java at heart long 
before Raffles, and in his mind it was inseparable from 
the welfare of the natives. He, however, thought of the 
soil before the inhabitants, and gave his attention to the 



206 JAVA 

matter of corvees, less to reduce them than to systematise 
them, and employ them in a direction which should be 
utilitarian and profitable for all. Persuaded that the 
absence of communications was one of the causes of the 
economic stagnation of Java, the " Iron Marshal " forced 
the natives, many of whom succumbed, to construct the 
magnificent road which runs from Anjer, the western 
point of the island, to Bunjuwangi, its eastern extremity. 
In less than two years he succeeded in constructing eight 
hundred miles of a magnificent high-road with a double 
causeway : one for wagons and cattle, the other for riders 
and lighter vehicles ; a road which is still the admiration 
of all foreigners, and which, in the end, has been copied 
throughout the island. This road, which was of the 
highest economic and strategic importance, was built by 
the most despotic methods, each dessa being forced to 
construct, within a determined period, a certain portion 
of the road. If its task was not completed by the day 
prescribed, the chiefs of the village, who were held 
responsible, were hung by Daendels* order. One can 
imagine the cost of that road in human lives and in every 
kind of iniquity. This pitiless genius, who was persuaded 
that the colonies should be a source of revenue to the 
mother-country, that their welfare must result from the 
increased value of the soil, and that the Javanese, in 
their smiling apathy, would never attempt to plant or 
to earn beyond their daily needs unless compelled to 
do so, nor cultivate more remunerative crops than rice, 
inaugurated the system of "forced crops," or com- 
pulsory cultivation, by decreeing that every Javanese 
village about which the soil was favourable to coffee 
should cultivate a regulation quantity — one thousand 
trees per family. Two-fifths of the crop was to enter 
the warehouses of the Government, under penalty of 
a heavy fine, equivalent to its value ; the three-fifths 
remaining belonged to the cultivators, who sold them to 
the Government at a price established according to the 
market values, and of course always far inferior to the 
real value. The rule of Daendels was not long enough 



THE PRODUCTS OF JAVA 207 

to allow him to complete his experiences of agriculture. 
The first harvests fell into the hands of the Government 
only on the coast, where it was possible to supervise them ; 
but there, too, the coffee was of indifferent quality. In 
the interior, owing to the lack of transport, or on account 
of smuggling, it was sold at ridiculous prices. The 
natives profited by the English domination by returning 
to the cultivation of rice, which at least would always 
assure them of a living. 

The Dutch, upon their return to Java, resumed the 
"landrente" and corvees instead of the high-handed 
proceedings of Daendels, and until 1824 managed to 
draw a sufficient revenue. But at this time, while the 
European administrative system which they had been 
slowly installing in the island was a great burden on the 
budget, the free labour of the scantily encouraged colonists 
had not conduced to a flow of capital from Holland. 
Deficits and loans commenced. In 1833 the colony was 
in debt, and the coffers of Holland were absolutely empty 
at the end of the war of secession with Belgium. General 
Count Van den Bosch presented himself, with an offer to 
relieve the budget and fill the coffers. He was given 
a free hand, and installed in the East Indies the 
"system of forced cultures" (Cultuurstelsel, or op hoog 
gezag ingevoerde kulturen), which at one moment was the 
glory of his name, and afterwards became his disgrace. 
His utilitarian genius, a trifle more bureaucratic than that 
of Daendels, was almost equal to that of the latter ; he had 
the same lucidity and the same unconscious immorality 
of opinion. As Governor-General from 1830 to 1834, 
and from 1834 to 1839 as Colonial Minister, Van den 
Bosch disposed of the fate of the Dutch East Indies, and 
in spite of the highest intentions, his system was really 
one of regulated tribute-taking. 

II. 

To force the native to cultivate something more than 
rice, Van den Bosch took from each, under the pretext 



208 JAVA 

of replacing the "landrente," a fifth part of his land. 
The native owed a variable number of days of com- 
pulsory labour, or corvee, to the State. Sometimes the 
authorities went so far as to demand the maximum of 
sixty days per person, which he was forced to devote 
to cultivating "rich" crops for the benefit of the Govern- 
ment : sugar, coffee, pepper, indigo, tea, tobacco ; and 
these crops he had to cultivate on the land which had 
been taken from him. The State thus benefited twice 
over, and without expending much energy, for it leased 
its lands and those subject to the corvee to contractors 
who undertook to feed the workers and pay the adminis- 
tration a fixed price in advance for the crop. 

If the contractor did not lose by this arrangement, one 
can imagine what the State made by it, especially as it 
decided, in order to draw a double profit, not to substitute 
compulsory crops for the " landrente/' but to levy both 
together. A veritable rain of gold fell upon Holland 
from the Indies. Every year the budget showed a credit 
balance of 30,000,000 florins (.£2,500,000), which went to 
swell the coffers of Holland, filling the deficit left by the 
Belgian War, and helping to pay for important public 
works, and to constitute a reserve fund. The share- 
holders spoke of nothing but of their saviour, Van den 
Bosch. In twelve years nearly 2,000,000,000 florins 
(.£166,000,000) was extracted from the colony by the 
most scandalous system of spoliation. 

The natives did not rebel, for their adat y with their 
petty princelets, had accustomed them to all kinds of 
extortions, and Van den Bosch had the art of winning 
over the chiefs to this legal spoliation, interesting them 
in it by means of a large bonus on the crops of those 
under their administration. The latter suffered cruelly. 
Although they had been promised that the land tax should 
be repealed, they were forced to pay it after all ; although 
a fifth of their land had been taken from them, they 
gradually saw the rest taken also as soon as it was made 
fit for cultivation. For their paddy-fields they were left 
only tracts of land so far from their villages that the 



THE PRODUCTS OF JAVA 209 

continual corvees left them barely the time to sow the 
crop. The contractors fed them not at all, or badly; 
they were obliged to sell their buffalo, and to go into 
debt, and they were always struggling to cultivate those 
remunerative crops which for them meant nothing but 
poverty and ruin. But already authoritative voices, even 
in Holland, were raised in their favour. The Liberal 
Party, having at its head men of action such as Fransen 
van de Putte, writers like Veth and Van den Lith, loudly 
expressed its indignation that a moral and supposedly 
civilised people should, in the nineteenth century, con- 
demn another to compulsory labour, and steal its lands 
and its money, without even using the latter to ameliorate 
its lot or to educate it. An ex-official, who had spent 
his life in the East Indies, Multatuli (Eduard Douwes 
Dekker), in his Max Havelaar, had eloquently pleaded 
the cause of the natives with the people of Holland. The 
book made a great sensation in Holland, and even in 
Europe. The struggle was greatly embittered, for the 
shareholders fought for their dividends, and the State to 
balance its budget ; but the conscience of the people, 
already awakened, was stunned by a new disaster. Van 
den Bosch, in order to prevent all chance of rebellion, 
had wished to crown his work by building a system of 
fortifications at Ambarawa, and around Samarang and 
Surabaja. The corvees impressed for that purpose in 1849 
prevented the natives from attending to their rice-fields, 
and in the east of the island a terrible famine occurred : 
the latest of many since the organisation of the system of 
compulsory crops. Nearly half a million natives died. 
Pastor Van Hoevell, who had lived in the Indies, placed 
the matter once again before Parliament and the people, 
bringing to his task the most moving eloquence. The 
system was condemned. It was slowly disorganised, and 
the policy of enriching the island by means of free 
labour (vrije-arbeid) replaced it. Gradually the com- 
pulsory crops disappeared ; the last, namely sugar, being 
abolished in 1890, when the Government maintained the 
coffee crop only for a limited period and with a promise to 

15 



210 JAVA 

extinguish the policy completely within a certain fixed 
time. 

These reforms, which were due to the Liberal Party, 
were crowned by the agrarian law (agrarische wet) of 
1870, by which the State guaranteed to the natives the 
right of property in the soil which they themselves had 
? cleared or cultivated; and leased all lands which 
remained uncultivated for a term of seventy-five years 
to individual tenants. The corvees (heerendiensten) were 
reduced to twenty and thirty-two days, according to the 
provinces, and were to be imposed solely for works of 
public utility ; and by the payment of an annual royalty 
of 1 florin per head a native could remain undisturbed. 

The system of Van den Bosch was extremely oppres- 
sive and despoiled the natives. It has deprived Java of 
enormous sums of money and of precious lives. By con- 
demning the population for more than fourteen years to 
hard labour, which was also for them unjust and fruitless 
labour, it led to their intellectual retrogression ; it was 
therefore, from the ethical standpoint, absolutely un- 
pardonable. Yet we cannot forget that by this realistic 
sacrifice of a whole generation it transformed the island 
into one of the richest and most fruitful of agricultural 
countries. It resulted, especially in the eastern provinces, 
where the soil is particularly fertile, in the cultivation 
of crops which were infinitely more profitable than rice, 
which are to-day the source of welfare and comfort ; and 
the increased value of land throughout the island has 
enabled the latter to feed a population which to-day 
amounts to more than 29,000,000 inhabitants ; while in 
1813 the population numbered only 6,000,000. Once 
more the truth of the famous adage is exemplified : "Woe 
to them that make revolutions : happy are they who 
inherit after them ! " 

The extension of free labour, and the support of Dutch 
capital, have brought remarkable prosperity to Java since 
1850 ; and the State, upon abandoning the principles 
of Van den Bosch, was moved by a spirit of salutary 
reaction, and turned to the natives with a genuine 



THE PRODUCTS OF JAVA 211 

solicitude, so that first the soil and then the native popu- 
lation attained their true value, to the greater profit and 
honour of both colony and mother-country. 

III. 

Since then the State has demonstrated its ardent desire 
to assist both colonists and natives in the intensive 
agricultural development which is making the fortune of 
Java. The Botanical Institute of Buitenzorg ('s Lands 
Plantentuin te Buitenzorg) is not the least happy of its 
efforts. This establishment, which has no rival in the 
world, is not merely a marvellous assemblage of all the 
products of the flora of the Archipelago ; its object is 
practical as well as scientific. Beauty is only its outward 
form; truth and utility are its inner purpose. It com- 
prises the Botanical Garden proper of 145 acres at 
Buitenzorg itself, and as annexes the experimental gardens 
at Tjikeumeu, of 180 acres ; the mountain gardens of 
Tjibodas, which have a much larger area ; and finally the 
virgin forest of Tjibodas, of 700 acres. At each of 
these establishments are laboratories, museums, libraries, 
herbaria, and collections, directed by scientists of the 
highest rank, from the founder of the Institute, Professor 
Reinwardt, of Amsterdam, to the last director, the emi- 
nent Dr. Treub. In the experimental gardens attempts 
at the acclimatisation of foreign plants and trees of 
agricultural value are carried on uninterruptedly ; the 
degree of resistance which they offer under determined 
conditions is studied ; experiments are made in the cross- 
ing and improvement of the flora of the country ; in 
short, the practical value and uses of the whole flora are 
investigated. In the laboratories, on the other hand, are 
studied vegetable parasites, noxious insects, chemical 
manures, &c. — all that is capable of destroying or enrich- 
ing that flora. The services which these laboratories 
have rendered in investigating the maladies peculiar to 
sugar-cane, tobacco, and coffee have been so great that 
private individuals have built such laboratories at their 



212 JAVA 

own expense in many parts of Java, for the better guidance 
of their own plantations. 

This Botanical Institute, so noted for its purely scientific 
labours as well as for its practical advice, costs the East 
Indies 342,400 florins a year, or .£29,360, while the 
budget of agriculture alone amounts to 7,200,000 florins 
(.£600,000), which sum is employed in the introduction 
of new crops or the improvement of those already 
existing in Java. 1 

The rebuilding of the Agricultural College for natives 
(Landbouwschool) at Buitenzorg, which was destroyed 
by fire in 1902, and which was attended by many sons of 
chiefs, future administrators of great agricultural estates, 
will also, by increasing the yield of the soil, and therefore 
the welfare of the natives, have the most desirable 
influence upon the improvement of the masses attached 
to the soil. 

IV. 

The system of native property in Java and Madura, 
on account of their vast extent, could hardly have been a 
uniform system. In the west and in the east the owner- 
ship of land is pre-eminently hereditary and individual, 
with the reservation that the owners, in relation to the 
State, which has succeeded to their princes, can regard 
themselves only as the tenants for life, who cannot be 
ejected or molested as long as they fulfil their obligations. 
In the centre of Java individual and communal pro- 
perty co-exist side by side ; the native possessing as 
his individual property the plot on which his house is 
built, and receiving from the chief of the village, every 
three, four, or five years, the field which is to furnish his 
subsistence and that of his family. The system of 
collective ownership has the defect that it lends itself to 
injustice in the distribution of the soil, as the chief can 
always favour his own relations ; moreover, the native 
feels no great enthusiasm for the land when he knows 

1 Concerning the Botanical Gardens of Buitenzorg see the 
note on p. 62. 



THE PRODUCTS OF JAVA 213 

that in a year or two it will pass into other hands. 
Everywhere the Dutch Government has taken care to 
limit the portion of land which the native can alienate, in 
order to save him from being completely despoiled, 
whether by Europeans or the Chinese. 



Rice is still the most important of all crops in Java and 
Madura. Of the 7,460,000 acres cultivated by the natives, 
5,438,000 acres are under rice. 

The rice lands are of two kinds : the wet rice-fields, 
or sawahs, which are by far the more productive, and the 
dry fields, or tegals, which are found where running 
water and rains are rare. 1 

The sawahs consist of level plots surrounded by little 
dykes or banks, which allow the water to be run in or off 
at will. If the land is sloping, that defect is remedied 
by disposing the fields in a succession of terraces, the 
water trickling from one to the other ; and by carrying 
such a series of terraces upwards rice may be grown 
as high as 3,500 feet. 

The natives usually work in the sawahs at the beginning 
of the rainy season, when they are flooded. Having 
repaired the water-channels and tested the solidity of the 
dykes, they sow the rice in the soft mud ; either in the 
entire ear, according to the traditional native method, 
or by sowing the grain by hand ; a method which results 
in a smaller waste of rice and a better harvest. 

After the sowing the soil is flooded by day and allowed 
to drain at night for a period of eight or ten days. At 
the end of a month or six weeks, according to the soil, 
the spikes will already have reached a certain height. 

1 The Hindus have left the Javanese as an inheritance a 
remarkable system of irrigation, which has been still further 
perfected by Dutch engineers. Of this the natives make excellent 
use. See J. E. de Meyier, " Irrigation in Java," in the Transactions 
of the American Society of Civil Engineers , vol. liv., part 6 (New 
York, 1908, 8vo). See also Bernard, Amenagement des eaux a Java, 
irrigation des riziere (Paris, 1903, 4to), 



214 JAVA 

They are then taken from the limited space in which they 
were confined and replanted in the sawahs in groups 
of two or three stems together, each group being stuck in 
the muddy soil at a distance of half an inch to an inch 
from its neighbours. 

The sawahs require neither fattening nor manuring. 
In some districts the rice is not even thinned out or 
replanted, but the rice is sown in the sawahs themselves, 
which in this case must be very soft. As this process 
results in the loss of a great deal of grain, it is becoming 
less usual. 

After the operation of replanting, the soil is successively 
flooded and drained every two or three days, care being 
taken that it is dry by the time of the harvest ; and at the 
moment of flowering all noxious weeds must be removed 
and the crop protected against the depredations of birds 
and beasts. It is usual to replant in November or 
December, or at latest in January ; the crop is gathered at 
the end of the fourth or fifth month, according to the 
species of rice and the altitude. The natives have a 
curious aversion to a June harvest ; they pretend that rice 
gathered in that month will inevitably be the prey of 
some calamity, or of birds, insects, disease, &c. 

The tegals, or dry rice-fields, are first of all tilled with a 
plough, or patjol (a sort of Javanese spade), so as to make 
it thoroughly loose. It is then smoothed and cleared, 
and holes are made in the surface at a distance of seven 
or eight inches from one another. In these the rice is 
deposited and left to germinate, which it does with 
variable success. This method, employed on land newly 
reclaimed, gives a far smaller yield than the sawahs, as 
might be supposed. The rice employed is usually the 
mountain paddy, padi gaga (padi ladang, padi hoeman, 
padi tigal) or Oriza Montana Lour. 

Where there is water in abundance the rice may be 
planted at any time of the year. Replanting and harvest- 
ing are effected stem by stem ; the first with the feet 
in the mud, and the back bent under the burning sun. 
The harvest is gathered standing, as the stem is cut at a 



THE PRODUCTS OF JAVA 215 

height of 2 feet 8 inches from the ground. Both opera- 
tions are performed collectively, the whole village working 
in each rice-field successively, with a genuine holiday 
spirit. These are times impatiently anticipated by the 
whole dessa, and are terminated by rejoicings. In vain 
have the Europeans tried to teach the Javanese to mow 
or reap his rice ; he obstinately insists upon cutting it ear 
by ear, according to tradition, with his little curved knife, 
which he handles with rare dexterity, but like a man not 
pressed for time. He refuses even to adopt the sickle 
used in Sumatra. 

The rice, stacked in little bundles and dried on the spot, 
is then placed in a trough, where a stamp or pestle 
separates the grain from the straw, the latter being 
employed in the manufacture of fine plaits for hats of a 
good class. The grain is husked in primitive mills, com- 
posed of a large mortar, in which disks of iron, stone, or 
wood are kept moving by buffalo traction or water power. 

Although the cultivation of rice demands only a 
limited amount of labour, the harvest is often disputed 
by birds, w T ild boar, insects, and disease ; a particular 
enemy being a certain caterpillar, which issues from the 
egg when the field is dry, and gnaws the stem ; or 
the walang sangii (Leptocorisa acuta Thumb.), which pre- 
vents the grain from forming, and ruins whole fields. 
The mentek (= evil spirit), a sort of rust or mildew 
which sears the blades, and afterwards attacks the roots, 
does almost as much damage. But the depredations of 
the tikus (mice) are worst of all. 

Formerly, after the first rice harvest, the native used to 
attempt to obtain a second or even a third crop from the 
same soil, which quickly exhausted it. As a result 
of the advice, and even the prohibitions of the Govern- 
ment, they have now abandoned this practice. Now, 
when the rice crop is gathered, they usually sow potatoes 
in the sawahs, or artichokes, which spring up in two or 
three months. In the Preangers and in Bantam, thanks 
to the permanent abundance of running water, the 
sawahs are converted into fish-ponds. The fish reared 



216 JAVA 

or fattened in these ponds are excellent eating at the 
end of two or three months, and bring in a good profit. 

The normal production of rice in Java is 10 to 12 
piculs per acre, the picul amounting to some 135 lbs. 
The rice-crop has continually improved ; in 1895 J ava 
produced only 36,702 tons ; in 1907 the crop amounted 
to 38,864 tons. In 1900, an especially fertile year, the 
harvest was one of 39,887 tons. Yet this great quantity 
of rice is still insufficient for Java, and large quantities 
are annually imported from Saigon and Singapore. 

Maize (djagong) is also grown by the natives around 
their houses, but in a far less degree than rice. Its culti- 
vation has been increasing in Madura. 

Another culture — the coco-nut and the palm which 
bears it (kalapa) — which the native until quite recently 
produced only in proportion to his personal needs, is now 
very general throughout Java, and is the subject of a 
great export trade. The coco-palm grows more especi- 
ally in the centre of Java, in the Residency of Kedu, 
where it attains a most vigorous growth, but does not 
require manuring, nor any particular care, as it does in 
Ceylon. 

There is a very important local trade in the entire nuts, 
as both the natives and the planters appreciate the 
refreshing and agreeable juice of the fresh nut as a 
beverage. They are also employed in cookery. Again, 
the coco-palm is an oleaginous plant of the first rank. 
The oil extracted from the kernel, which is previously 
broken into two or three pieces and dried, when it is 
known as copra, is employed in the manufacture of soap, 
candles, &c. ; it also yields an excellent vegetable fat 
(vegetaline, vegetable butter, vegetable suet, Palmine, &c), 
which is employed in making biscuits, cakes, and pastry, 
and is more and more rapidly replacing dairy butter in 
the industrial production of such articles, and in the 
private kitchen. 

The fresh kernel, grated and dried, is used in the 
preparation of dishes, pastries, cakes, &c, in Holland, 
Austria, Germany, England, and the United States. The 



THE PRODUCTS OF JAVA 217 

residue left after the extraction of oil, or copra oil-cake, 
is an excellent food for cattle, and is also used as a 
manure. 

The fibrous envelope of the coco-nut furnishes, after 
steeping, the familiar coco-nut fibre, which is used for 
rope-making, in cheap brooms and scrubbing-brushes, 
for caulking the seams of ships, and in coco-nut fibre 
matting, &c. 

The exports from this source, which consist chiefly of 
copra, commenced in 1859, and in 1900 had attained a 
value for the whole of the Dutch Indies of .£420,000. 
Java was responsible for about one-half of this amount, 
which was principally exported from Tjilatjap, Surabaja, 
and Batavia to Holland, France, and Singapore. This is 
one of the most important articles of trade between 
France and the Dutch colonies. 

The areca-nut and the betel-nut are grown for local 
use, in order to provide sirih, which the natives are 
always chewing. 

VI. 

Another plant, which, although its cultivation demands 
no care, has always provided the natives with their prin- 
cipal building materials, the greater part of their furniture, 
and their kitchen utensils, is the bamboo. This has 
also given birth to a hat-making industry, the chief 
centres of which are Bantam and the Tangarang district, 
whose products have a wide sale in France and the 
United States. Created by the Chinese of Manilla, this 
industry now occupies sixty thousand natives. The 
bamboo hat, which is as flexible as the Manilla hat, has, 
however, the serious defect of turning yellow on ex- 
posure to the air, and it cannot be washed. In its 
manufacture the men cut into thin ribbons the outer 
skin of a certain bamboo : the women and children of 
the village plait in two working days a hat which sells 
for about 4a. Prices naturally vary with the fineness of 
the plait, and the European agents who buy the hats on 



218 JAVA 

the spot, with the help of Malay and Chinese assistants, 
distinguish as many as ten qualities. The purchases of 
the French and American houses have nearly doubled 
the prices, especially of those of exceptional quality, 
which sell in France to-day at from £i to £i 4s. These 
require two months of continual work. Before they are 
sold the brims of the hats are hemmed, and they are steeped 
in bisulphite of soda in order to bleach them, and dried 
in the sun. At one time peroxide of hydrogen was 
employed, but the use of bisulphite of soda was resumed, 
as certain Protectionist countries would not accept hats 
as being in the unfinished state if they happened to be 
of a startling whiteness. 

Any hats stained by the bisulphite are dyed by the 
Chinese and sold to the natives ; or they are sold by the 
manufacturers as sun-helmets, after having been placed 
in a metal mould and covered with white cloth. 

The perfect examples are sold to Europe and America, 
in zinc-lined cases containing from 1,200 to 2,100, accord- 
ing to the quality. In 1900 the total exports amounted 
to four millions of hats, and one single house in Tan- 
gerang despatched more than thirty thousand a week. 1 

The French house, L. Platon, which has its head- 
quarters at Kali-Besar (Batavia), and agents at Bordeaux, 
also exports a great quantity of these hats. The abun- 
dance of the bamboo, the ability of the natives, and 
the cheapness and quality of labour, assure a great future 
to this industry. 

1 See De Rivet's book, L Industrie du ckapeau en Equateur et au 
Perou (Librairie Orientale et Americaine, Paris, E. Guilmoto). 






CHAPTER XI 

AGRICULTURE : VARIOUS CROPS 

L Coffee.— II. Sugar-cane.— -III. Tobacco.— IV. Tea.— V. Quinine, 
VI. Indigo. — VII. Lesser crops : pepper, cinnamon, cotton, &c. 



I. 

Among the more remunerative crops not indigenous to 
Java, by far the most important is coffee. 

In 1699 Henricus Zwaardecroon imported some slips 
or cuttings of coffee-trees from Malabar into Java. In 
1706 the first crop made its appearance upon the 
markets of Holland, when it was welcomed to such 
effect that, although throughout the eighteenth century 
all efforts to extend the production of coffee through the 
centre and the east of Java were unsuccessful, yet coffee 
was one of the first crops to be declared compulsory by 
Van den Bosch. 

Coffee did then spread all over Java. It is the last 
crop which the State has retained partially in its own 
hands ; but its intervention in this department of agri- 
culture has no longer the harmful character of a mono- 
poly. The poor results obtained by the system have led 
to its entire abandonment in the provinces of Bantam, 
and the districts of Japara and Rembang, and have led to 
its being restricted in many others. In 1900 there were 
still 288,000 families cultivating 66,000,000 trees, of 
which 15,246,000 were not yet bearing, for the Govern- 
ment of Holland ; but the latter pays them for the 
harvest far more generously than of old. 

The free plantations contained 181,000,000 trees, of 

219 



220 JAVA 

which about 16,000,000 were not yet bearing ; and 
the total area covered by the State and the free planta- 
tions was about 300,000 acres, which has since steadily 
increased, for 50 per cent, of the fallow land conceded 
upon very long lease is planted with coffee, and the 
State does its utmost to encourage the native to grow it 
on his own property, by furnishing him with seed and 
cuttings of Liberia coffee. The Javanese, who are un- 
accustomed to crops that require prolonged care, and 
are very badly off for tools, confine themselves to gather- 
ing the crop, and removing the coffee from the shell by 
shaking it in baskets. It is then delivered, at a regulation 
price, to Europeans who complete the preparation of the 
berry, and then, for a small commission, despatch it to 
the Government warehouses. 

Coffee grows well in Java at all altitudes up to 4,000 feet ; 
but does best between the limits of 1,400 and 2,800 feet. 

The principal varieties cultivated in Java are the Coffea 
arabica and the Coffea liberica, the latter being the better 
adapted to resist the attacks of the terrible Hemileia 
vastatrix ; the Coffea maragogypa is also grown on a 
smaller scale, and attempts are being made to acclimatise 
the Coffea stenophylla from Central Africa. In view of the 
important part which the cultivation of coffee plays in 
th& colony, the laboratories of Buitenzorg and the 
experimental gardens are busily increasing their research 
work with a view to attacking the parasites of the 
precious shrub, and to introducing the more productive 
and resistant varieties. The planters themselves have 
even founded a station at Buitenzorg which deals 
entirely with coffee, and they do not, as a rule, undertake 
the planting of coffee until they have undergone a 
serious course of study at the Agricultural College of 
Wageningen in Holland, where the department of 
tropical agriculture and arboriculture, together with the 
courses in Malay and the ethnology of the Archipelago, 
afford them a very excellent training for the purpose. 1 

1 The Higher Royal College of Agriculture, Horticulture and 
Forestry of Wageningen (Rijks hoogere Land-, Tuin- en Boshbouw- 




NATIVE IRRIGATION WHEELS. 
(Rattan wheels, wattle paddles, bamboo buckets, wooden pipes.) 




NATIVE ENGINEERING : A BAMBOO CANTILEVER BRIDGE. 



To face p. 220. 



AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 221 

Liberia coffee is grown more especially on the plains ; 
all varieties grow best on soils which contain an excess 
neither of clay nor of sand, are not too heavy, and are 
well mixed with humus. 

Land for a new plantation is broken up at the 
beginning of the dry season. The trees — if it be forest 
land — may be felled or burned ; in the latter case the 
heat of their burning increases the fertility of the soil. 
Even when a whole forest is cut down, care is taken to 
leave rows of trees as windbreaks, which protect the 
young shrubs from the prevailing winds. 1 

The land must then be thoroughly freed from harmful 
weeds, sometimes by ploughing, more often by the 
patjol, and sometimes by hand or with a curved knife 
(arit) ; when the land is sloping the trees are planted in 
terraces. It is especially necessary to eradicate the alang- 
alang (Imperata arundinacea Cyr.), and to burn it, roots 
and all. Otherwise, even if buried in heaps at the end 
of the furrows, it will spring up and resume its possession 
of the soil in a few days. 

The next step is to dig a series of pits some 2 feet 
deep and 2 feet wide, which are left open to the air for 
two months, and then filled with manure, except in the 
case of virgin land, which does not require it, or where 
it would be a matter of too great difficulty to procure it. 
On land thus prepared, provided the roots are not 
impeded by stones or too hard a soil, the young shrubs 
will grow with great vigour. They may advantageously 
be sheltered by a screen of trees, a special variety being 
employed for this purpose : the dadaps (Erythrine, Hypa- 
phorus subumbrans) ; or the Albizzia stipulata, or 

school te wageningen) educates agronomic engineers and forestry 
officers. It possesses a department for the training of those who 
intend to emigrate to the East Indies, whether in the service of the 
State, or that of private employers, or who wish to be able to 
become competent managers of plantations. See the Programma 
der Lessen voor 1909-1910 (Wageningen, published by van F. E. 
Haak, 1909, 8vo). 

x For a study of coffee-planting see Sao Paolo du Bresil, by 
L. Casabona (Librairie Orientale et Americaine, E. Guilmoto). 



222 JAVA 

Albizzia molucrana, which gives an admirable shade, but 
is very fragile ; or the Deguelia microphylla, which is 
inclined to grow to an excessive height. The dadap is 
the best of these trees. The number of these tree-shelters 
varies with the kind of tree employed and the altitude of 
the plantation ; the higher it is the less need is there of 
shade. 

From January to April, and earlier on higher ground, 
the seeds or berries are sown ; the seed-coffee being first 
well washed with a mixture of water and ashes, which 
removes any adherent viscous matter. This operation is 
performed in a sort of sheltered nursery ; at the end of 
the rainy season, in December, when the young seedlings 
thus obtained will be more than 12 inches in height, 
they are removed, with the roots well covered with earth, 
to the new plantation, there to be replanted. On some 
plantations the planters simply make use of the seedlings 
which spring up among the shrubs from fallen coffee- 
berries. All that remains to be done after the planting is 
to weed very carefully among the shrubs, and on low- 
lying lands to lift the soil carefully with the patjol once 
or twice a year until the fourth year. Care must also 
be taken to prevent the shrub from shooting up too 
rapidly. 

Two or three years after planting the shrub begins to 
bear fruit ; but no harvest is gathered until the fifth or 
sixth year, and the crop is most abundant only towards 
the fifteenth year. It may live forty, fifty, or sixty years 
longer, but its yield gradually decreases. It flowers at 
the commencement of the rainy season ; seven or eight 
months later the fruit is ripe. It is of a bright red colour, 
which makes the plantations a very beautiful sight. 

On all the important estates the coffee is to-day pre- 
pared by the modern process, which retains the aroma of 
the berry while giving it a good polish. The berries are 
freed from the husk or pod directly after the harvest, by 
means of revolving cylinders, which are turned by steam 
or water-power. The berries are then carefully washed, 
dried in steam drying-machines, and then freed from the 



AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 223 

last or inner husk or envelope, and winnowed to remove 
the broken husks. 

The East Indies, next to Brazil, produce the best 
coffee and the largest quantity. They furnish one-fifth 
of the world's consumption, and the value of the harvest 
often amounts to ^2,500,000. 

Coffee-planting is not what it was formerly — a certain 
source of wealth. Competition in all parts of the world * 
and in the Indies themselves has resulted in a lowering of 
prices, and has diminished the profits by dividing them 
between a larger number of planters. 

Coffee, moreover, is subject to a series of pests and 
maladies. One of these pests, the Hemileia vastatrix, has 
practically annihilated the coffee-plantations of Ceylon. 
This is an orange-coloured mould, which appears on the 
under side of the leaves, causing them to fall, and which 
blackens and kills both fruit and branches. In many 
cases it has destroyed large plantations in a few months. 
Hitherto the innumerable remedies attempted have been 
almost useless ; the best appears to be to smoke the tree 
thoroughly in order to increase its resistance to the 
plague. 

To this plague we must add " the black blight," which 
blackens stems and leaves ; the djarnur upas, a poisonous 
agaric or fungus which kills the young twigs in the 
course of a few days ; a microscopic insect which pro- 
duces a disease known in Holland as aaltjesziekte, which 
destroys the roots, as do also two beetles, or rather their 
larvae ; the kuwuk, or larva of the Exopholas hypoleuca, 
and the uret, or larva of the Lachnostera ancylonicha ; and 
finally the larva of an insect, known as the kqffieborer 
or "coffee-piercer" as its name denotes : the Hylotrichus 
quadrupes. 

On account of all these enemies to production, the 
cultivation of coffee is somewhat on the decrease in Java. 

In 1895 the compulsory crops amounted to 318,829 

1 And the years of excessive over-production in Brazil, when one 
year's crop in San Paolo greatly exceeded the world's annual con- 
sumption, thus glutting the markets.— [Trans.] 



224 JAVA 

piculs (about 19,000 tons), and the yield of the free 
plantations 378,100 piculs (about 23,000 tons). In 1906 
the figures were 168,343 piculs (10,000 tons), and 318,185 
piculs (19,500 tons) ; in 1907 (a particularly bad year) 
the State crop was 30,702 piculs (about 1,903 tons), and 
the "free" crop 195,116 piculs (12,000 tons). In 1899, 
on the other hand, which was an excellent year for coffee, 
the several yields were 198,708 piculs (13,000 tons), and 
552,040 piculs (34,000 tons). Nearly all the Java coffees 
are exported to Rotterdam and Amsterdam, whence they 
are distributed to the rest of Europe. 

France, Austria, North America, and Singapore are 
the best buyers of Javanese coffee. 1 Of the recent total 
of 15,520 tons, of which 4,538 belonged to the State, 
while 10,928 tons were " free/' France received 588 tons, 
Austria 536, America 4,061, and Singapore 2,214. 



II. 

If, as is believed, sugar-cane was imported into the 
East Indies, it was at some fairly remote period, since it 
had been already acclimatised for four centuries when 
the Europeans landed. However, the cultivation of 
sugar-cane became systematic only in 1830, when it was 
promoted by Van den Bosch. His system, however, was 
not as successful as one might have expected. The 
Government practically forced private persons to make 
sugar under somewhat onerous conditions from the com- 
pulsory crops of cane ; this sugar it sold. Owing to a 
lack of technical knowledge and an insufficient rate of 
remuneration, the Government was unable to find con- 
tractors who would undertake the industrial preparation 
of sugar in its place, and principally for its benefit, and 
was forced to fall back upon a few subordinate officials 
and Chinese ; so that its monoply was far less profitable 
than was anticipated, precisely on account of its strin- 
gency. The sugar industry underwent no general exten- 

1 Concerning coffee and other products, see Les grandes cultures 
dans rile de Java (Leyden, Brill, 1909, fol.). 






AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 225 

sion until 1877, when the State abandoned its monopoly 
to a great extent ; in 1880 it abolished it altogether. 
From that date free labour, supported by the home 
capitalists, began to cover the Dutch Indies with planta- 
tions of cane, the area under cane to-day exceeding 
200,000 acres. The majority of these plantations are in 
the north of Java. 

Two unforeseen events occurred. The development 
in Europe of the beet-sugar industry and the disease 
known as sereh, produced by a parasite, caused a crisis in 
the sugar industry during the latter part of the nineteenth 
century. The beet-sugar industry caused the pioul of 
sugar to fall from 16 florins to 7 \ ; the disease devoured 
entire plantations. The colonists faced this double danger 
with much energy ; two experimental stations were 
established in Java J for the purpose of determining the 
species of cane best adapted to resist disease and those 
richest in sugar, and of deciding what chemical fertilisers 
might increase these tw r o qualities ; as a result the planters 
were able to produce more sugar from a ton of cane, to 
lower their prices, and to survive competition. 

The species cultivated in Java are numerous. As the 
result of experiments with the Madagascar cane, and 
varieties from Borneo, Mauritius, and the Fijis, the black 
or red-brown cane of Cheribon is now commonly used ; 
and also the white cane, which the natives prefer because 
it grows more profusely. Both are cultivated more 
particularly in the sawahs f and more rarely on dry lands, 
for the drainage and irrigation of cane requires a great 
deal of care. The cane is usually grown from shoots, 
which are planted in well-tilled land ; although since 
1887 attempts have been made to raise the cane from 
seed, in order to avoid weakening the adult cane from 
which the shoots are taken, and so decreasing its power 
of resisting disease. These experiments appear to have 
been attended with perfect success when the seed of 

x These two establishments have lately been incorporated into 
one, named Het proefstation voor de Java-Suikerindustrie, which is 
situated in Samarang. See Regeerings Almanak, 1909, vol. ii. p. 541, 

16 



226 JAVA 

the yellow cane of Hawai has been used. Usually the 
land is ploughed in March or April ; the cane is planted 
in July, and before planting the soil must be thoroughly 
watered. Both before and after planting it is indispen- 
sable, if a good harvest be desired, to fatten the soil with 
sulphite of ammonia and oil-cake — preferably the residue 
of caraway seed. At the end of ten or fourteen months 
in the plains, or eighteen on the uplands, the cane will 
have reached maturity. The cane is harvested from June 
to October, and the process of sugar-making commences 
at once ; which means that the hands employed have to 
work, in shifts, day and night for three months. If the 
planter delays when once the cane is ripe the sap loses 
both quantity and quality. The cane may be cut or up- 
rooted ; but the precaution is first taken of cutting off 
the heads of the plants, in order that they may serve for 
a new plantation. 

The cane is crushed in the neighbouring factory ; the 
dry leaves and debris serving as fuel for the engine which 
works the crushing-mill. A bo uw, or field of 173 acres, 
yields an average of 5 tons of cane, but will sometimes pro- 
duce twice as much. Crushed between rollers which are 
rotated by steam-power, the cane yields from 65 to 70 per 
cent, of its weight in sap ; in an especially well-equipped 
factory the proportion may be as high as 80 per cent. 

The sap first flows through a filter, and is then purified 
by saturating it with lime. 1 It is further purified by 
filtering under pressure, and then boiled in a vacuum. 
The sugar thus obtained is dried in centrifugal separators, 
which fling off the molasses or crude treacle. It is then 
whitened by means of a fine spray of water or dry steam ; 

1 Milk of lime is mixed with the sap to neutralise the acids in the 
juice ; clay, finings, and sulphurous acid may also be used to remove 
impurities. These coagulate, and either sink or rise to the surface. 
The clarified juice is run through filters — bag filters of felt, or char- 
coal, or capillary filters ; pressure is usually employed to hasten the 
operation. In vacuo the sugar boils at about 150 Fahr. ; a greater 
heat discolours the product. When minute crystals commence to 
form in the vacuum, pure fresh syrup is admitted, and the resulting 
cake is treated in the centrifugal separators.— [Trans.] 



AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 227 

then, after being dried by artificial heat or sunlight, it is 
packed in baskets. The molasses is treated in centrifugal 
separators to save the sugar still contained in it, or is 
distilled for the purpose of making arack, or native rum. 1 

As a rule, the maximum yield of the bouw, or field of 
173 acres, is 115 to 160 piculs of sugar; or from 4 to 
5*6 tons per acre. Such a result can only be obtained by 
means of a perfected modern equipment, which is very 
costly. The planters of Java, however, have not hesitated 
to install such plant. At the same time such machinery 
is not within the reach of all, so that it is not surprising 
that the number of factories decreases as their total out- 
put increases. 

Thus in 1895 there were 195 sugar factories in Java, 
yielding 9,454,441 piculs (586,175 tons) ; in 1901 there 
were 185, yielding 13,091,000 piculs (811,666 tons); in 
1907 there were 177, yielding 18,138,304 piculs (1,124,570 
tons metric). 

In the year 1907-1908 the Dutch East Indies exported 
a total of 1,195,334 tons of sugar, of which 335,521 went 
to British India, while America and Hong-Kong absorbed 
171,470 and 161,510 tons respectively. The East Indies 
hold the first place among sugar-producing countries ; 
Java by itself comes immediately after Cuba. 2 

In addition to the European sugar industry there is 
also a native industry. The natives cultivate the white 
cane, which gives a poor yield, but requires little attention. 
Native sugar, which is of course an inferior product, is 
known as gula J aw a. Certain factories in Surabaja have 
made the experiment of refining the native sugars in order 
to produce from it a white sugar. With the sap of the 
sugar or toddy palm, the Arenga saccharifera, the natives 

1 The sap of the sugar-cane undergoes very rapid fermentation 
once it is expelled from the cane. — [Trans.] 

2 The Syndicate General of the sugar manufacturers of the Dutch 
East Indies has for fourteen years published an Annual which gives 
full details of their industry, and a chart showing the positions of 
their factories. The Annual is entitled, Jaarboek voor Suikerfabrik- 
anten op Java, 1909-10 (Amsterdam, J. H. de Bussy, 1909, 8vo). 



228 JAVA 

still prepare little flat or conical cubes of brown sugar, 
which has a nutty flavour, and is sold very cheaply ; and 
they prepare from the fermented sap of the same palm 
the alcoholic liquor known as tuwak, the abuse of which 
makes the Madurese native a somewhat uncertain char- 
acter. This tree also yields a vegetable fibre (duk, idjuk), 
which is used for making cordage and cheap carpets. 
They extract a rather poor sugar from the Nipa fruticans, 
which grows in the marshes, and whose leaves, under the 
name of atap, they use to thatch their houses. 



III. 

If tobacco is not unquestionably native in the East 
Indies — and the many varieties of the tobacco plant 
found there seem to prove that it is — it has at least 
become a general necessity to the native population, who 
smoke it rolled iii a piece of maize-leaf, 1 chew it, or mix 
it with sirih. In Java and in the greater part of the 
Archipelago, and in Sumatra notably, there are, roughly 
speaking, two kinds of tobacco grown and two methods 
of cultivation. The quality of the two kinds is very 
different, but the cultivation of either is rapidly spread- 
ing. One kind is the subject of the native trade; the 
other is exported to Europe and America. 

Native tobacco is grown most extensively in Kedu, 
Bagelein, Pasuruan, Pekalongan, Rembang, and the 
Preangers. It is grown in rotation with rice in the drier 
districts ; it is not treated with any great care, either 
before or after it is plucked ; consequently the leaf is 
small and the aroma displeasing to the European palate. 
It is dispatched into all parts of the island, and some is 
exported to Singapore, whence it is exported once more 
to such parts of the Archipelago as grow no tobacco : 
Amboin, Borneo, &c. 

Tobacco of the European quality is prepared by the 
natives, according to the methods and under the active 
supervision of Europeans. It is grown more especially 

1 As do the Brazilians, this being their form of the cigarette. — [Tr.] 



AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 229 

in the centre of Java, in the Vorstenlanden and the 
eastern portion of the island. It is grown from the sea- 
shore up to a height of over 6,000 feet among the moun- 
tains ; the best and the most easy to handle is found in 
those low-lying lands which are least saturated with 
moisture. Such lands, which from time to time are well 
watered by the rains, are the best of all. The first 
essential, in growing good tobacco, is the choice of 
sound seed belonging to a good variety. Formerly the 
kinds apparently indigenous to Java were planted, but 
the leaves were too small for the European trade ; the 
Dutch variety, with larger leaves, rapidly degenerated ; 
the Manilla variety, which in new surroundings acquired 
a totally different perfume and flavour, retained its 
flexibility, and has been largely used, though less largely 
than the Deli (Sumatra) tobacco. To obtain the best 
seed the planters surround a few fine plants with hedges, 
watch carefully over the ripening of the pods, which are 
dried in the sun, and when the capsules open the released 
seeds are hermetically sealed in bottles. 

They are sown at once, mixed with wood ashes, in 
frames with adjustable tops, so that the heat and light 
may be regulated. The period of germination requires 
careful supervision ; at the outset the frames must be 
watered twice a day, and the sun must not shine upon 
them save in the morning ; but gradually a daily water- 
ing suffices, and they are sheltered from the sun only at 
midday. 

In forty or fifty days the seedlings are sufficiently 
grown to be replanted in the open air ; but each seedling 
is sheltered from the sun by means of a little rice-straw, 
or a large leaf turned backwards on its stem, and the 
watering is continued. At the end of a fortnight they 
are uncovered, and the soil around the plants is lifted 
and aired by means of the patjol. When they are some 
12 inches high the lower leaves are removed, and the 
stems are twice earthed up. Having attained their full 
development, the buds are nipped to prevent flowering. 
This is a delicate operation ; if too much of the stalk be 



230 JAVA 

removed the leaves become thick and heavy ; if too little, 
the lower leaves are starved. After this pruning process 
the tobacco is left to ripen for two weeks longer. If a 
few showers fall about this period, so much the better, as 
the rain removes the oil from the leaves and renders them 
more inflammable. 

At the end of from sixty-five to eighty-six days the 
tobacco is ripe, the leaves begin to droop, and they are 
promptly gathered, being plucked one by one, threaded 
on strings, and tied into bundles which are sent to the 
drying-chambers. 

A quicker method consists in cutting the plant down 
at the level of the soil and hanging it in the drying- 
chamber in that condition ; but as the lower leaves are 
of greater value than the rest these should be carefully 
plucked by hand. In the great bamboo drying-rooms 
the tobacco is left hanging from laths and kept from 
the light for thirty or forty days ; the leaves are then 
arranged in bundles of forty to fifty, according to their 
length, colour, and thickness, and are then taken to the 
fermentation sheds. In these sheds, which are nearly 
always of stone, roofed with galvanised iron, the tobacco 
undergoes the last stages of its preparation : fermenta- 
tion, sorting, and compression into bales. Fermentation 
is induced by placing the tobacco in piles upon a plank 
of wood. As the fermentation is very lively at the outset, 
these piles contain only 5 lb. or 10 lb. of tobacco to begin 
with ; but towards the end of the process they amount to 
60 lb. or 80 lb.. A thermometer protected by a sheath of 
bamboo is often inserted in the fermenting heap, in order 
to indicate the exact temperature, so that fermentation 
may be checked at the right moment ; for it is possible 
for the leaves to grow so hot in a single day as to burst 
into flames. When the temperature of the fermenting 
heap is the same as that of the air in the fermenting 
chamber the process of fermentation is over, and the 
piles are demolished, the leaves re-sorted, and made up 
into bales of 165 lb. to 220 lb., w T hich are sewn up in mat- 
ting and exported, chiefly to Amsterdam and Rotterdam. 



AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 231 

All these processes, demanding the most precise and 
minute attention, require the supervision of Europeans, 
so long as the Javanese themselves remain insensible to 
the large profits which they themselves might draw from 
the improvement of their own methods. 1 

In 1895, 9*807 tons of tobacco were exported from 
Java to Europe. The increase in production has since 
then been constant ; in 1907, a particularly good year, it 
amounted to 37,892 tons. 

With the development of the native tobacco trade 
and the increasing production of tobacco in Sumatra, 
and also in certain parts of Borneo, the exports have 
reached the total figure of 69,489 tons, the value being 
approximately ^2,645,835 for Java, and ^3,250,000 for 
Sumatra. 

IV. 

Tea constitutes a smaller but very appreciable source 
of revenue for the East Indies, which are among the 
great tea-producing countries. The tea-plant does best 
at a height of 1,500 to 1,800 feet, but may be grown at 
all altitudes from 480 to 3,200 feet, provided the soil is 
clayey, rich in organic matter, and well drained. Until 
1890 only Chinese tea was planted in Java; to-day it is 
being everywhere replaced by Assam tea, and other hybrid 
varieties which partake both of the Assam and the 
Chinese varieties. Assam tea, while much hardier than 
Chinese, is also more profusely leaved. The Preangers, 
Batavia, Kedu, and Pekalongan are the best tea-growing 
provinces in Java ; the Preangers alone furnishing more 
than all the rest put together. 

The tea-plant is reproduced by seed. The seed, having 
been gathered at maturity, when the capsule opens to 
allow the seed to escape, is sown in beds and trans- 
planted, or in the open and in situ, at a depth of an inch 
and a quarter or two inches. If the seeds are fresh they 
should germinate in a ratio of two in three ; otherwise 

1 See O. J. A. Collet, Le tabac, sa culture et son exploitation dans les 
rbgions tropicales. Le tabac a Sumatra (Brussels, 1903, large 8vo). 



232 JAVA 

only a quarter to a tenth will come up, Some planters 
take the precaution of allowing the seeds to germinate in 
a layer of mould, planting them only when they have 
begun to germinate. 

As the soil must lie lightly about the shrubs, the planta- 
tion must be dug over two or three times a year, and 
weeded once a month. In the third or fourth year 
trenches are dug between the shrubs, measuring some 
10 feet long by 12 inches wide by 6 deep, in order to air 
the roots. The young shrubs must also be plentifully 
smoked. The crop may be gathered in the third or 
fourth year. The first yield is always scanty, but the 
succeeding crops are more and more plentiful, and well- 
tended shrubs produce almost indefinitely, They are 
closely pruned once a year to prevent them from flower- 
ing ; although at high altitudes a pruning every second 
or third year is sufficient. The same shrub will yield 
yellow tea, black tea, and a number of different qualities 
of tea ; the two leaves at the tip of each twig furnish 
Orange Pekoe, the finest of all, whether green or black — 
the colour depends upon the after-treatment ; the lower 
leaves make their appearance as Souchong ; the lowest of 
all are sold as Congo. 1 

Green tea is obtained by drying the newly-plucked 
leaves at once upon heated iron plates ; so as to prevent 
the fermentation and oxidisation which turn the leaf black. 
To obtain black tea the leaves are first scattered and ex- 
posed to the air, when they shrivel and curl up ; they are 
then rolled and bruised several times in roller-machines, 
for ten or twelve minutes each time ; they are then placed 
in flat bamboo baskets or trays, to ferment and oxidise by 
contact with the air, and finally go to the drying-machine. 2 

1 Concerning tea, see H. Neuville, Technologie du the. Composition 
chimique de la feuille. Recolte et manipulation. Procedes europeens. 
Procedes asiatiques (Paris, 1905, large 8vo). 

2 The usual form of drying-machine consists of a series of metal 
drawers with perforated bottoms, which slide into an iron frame or 
chest. Hot air is drawn or driven up or down through the whole. — 
TTrans.] 





> 



AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 233 

Tea-planting has been in a state of continual expansion 
in the Dutch Indies since 1865, when the State renounced 
its monopoly. In 1907 the crop amounted to 11,494 tons. 



The trade in quinine is as vigorous and valuable as 
that in tea. This precious tree, according to Junghuhn, 
was introduced in 1854, from Callao, by the botanist, 
Justus Karl Hasskarl, after a long and perilous voyage. 
The forty-eight trees which were still in a healthy condi- 
tion when Java was reached were immediately replanted 
in the garden of Tjibodas, at a height of nearly 5,000 
feet above sea-level, by the famous botanist-gardener, 
Teysmann. 

The experiment was so completely successful that the 
cultivation of the cinchona-tree was rapidly taken up 
throughout the Preangers, and then in the centre of Java. 
After a great many experiments the Buitenzorg laboratory 
discovered that the species Calysaya, imported from 
South America in 1865, thanks to the tenacity of the 
merchant Ledger, was far richer in quinine than any 
other variety. Since then Cinchona ledgeriana has been 
planted everywhere, and a certain number of Officinalis 
and Succirubra imported from Ceylon ; a limited number, 
because these two species are valued more especially for 
the bark, as sold and compounded by the pharmacist; 
and the demand for this bark being limited, the planters 
have only planted it in proportion to the commercial 
demand. It is becoming more and more usual to graft 
Ledgeriana with Succirubra, without which precaution it 
grows more slowly and offers less resistance to disease. 
The cinchona, indeed, is subject to many complaints ; 
sometimes a fungus will rot the roots, and nothing 
remains but to burn the trees attacked and disinfect 
the soil wherein they grew ; sometimes a blight or rust 
attacks the branches, which must be lopped and burned ; 
sometimes a more dangerous pest, the Helopaltis Bradii, 
pierces the leaves and the young branches, sucks the sap 



234 JAVA 

and kills the shrub ; and so far no one has found any 
better remedy than to burn the insect and its victim. 

The cinchona is generally reproduced by seed, and 
is grown in a nursery and transplanted as soon as the 
young tree is about 3 feet high. It requires much 
the same treatment as coffee. From the time the trees 
are four years old a small crop may be obtained by 
pruning the tree, which process may be repeated until 
maturity. From the sixth or eighth year the plantation 
yields a good harvest, which may be obtained in four 
ways : by uprooting the tree ; by cutting it down to the 
level of the soil ; by removing longitudinal strips of bark, 
as is done in the case of the cork-tree, so that the bark 
can grow again ; by removing the bark with a plane 
or shaving-iron down to the cambium only, only re- 
moving the second half when the first has regrown. The 
tree is never peeled with a steel knife, which would spoil 
and discolour the bark, but with a knife of horn or bamboo. 

The bark is then dried in the sun, or by artificial heat 
in special appliances. It is then sorted and put up into 
bales ; an operation which requires great care, as the 
qualities intended for the manufacture of quinine must 
not be mixed with those intended for pharmaceutical 
preparations — extracts and tinctures of cinchona and 
cinchona wine. In ten years the production of cinchona 
has almost trebled ; in 1907 it amounted to 8,985 
tons. 1 

Cinchona is grown upon ninety-three leasehold planta- 
tions, seven Government estates, and five private freehold 
plantations. Javanese cinchona has lately profited by the 
failure of the Cingalese article. The bark is sent to 
Amsterdam, and thence distributed throughout Europe, 
or sometimes directly to England, which buys a great 
quantity. 

1 In virtue of a convention with the Government the Bandung 
factory is entrusted, from December 31, 1904, to transform into sul- 
phate of quinine, destined to be sold in the Batavia market, a portion 
of the cinchona bark gathered in the official plantations of the 
Preangers. 



AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 235 

The manufacture of the sulphate of quinine, which has 
developed with great rapidity, has its centre at Bandung, 
where the Bandoengsche Kininefabriek is situated. The 
manufacturers are not only attempting, by acquiring 
the bark from all the Javanese plantations, to keep the 
greater part of the European trade in their own hands, 
but also to compete with the trade of the Far East : 
of China, Japan, the Philippines, the English and French 
Asiatic colonies and possessions, and even of Australia. 1 

As soon as a consignment of cinchona arrives the 
Kininefabriek extracts quinine from three samples of the 
bark. One sample is required to determine the richness 
of the bark in quinine, one is sent to the planter, and 
one put by for reference. The Company does not buy 
cinchona at its own risk ; it simply undertakes to manipu- 
late it for the planters and to find a market for the result- 
ing products. At the end of the year the profits are 
divided proportionately between the planters, with the 
exception of a certain sum to cover the Company's 
expenses and yield it a net profit. 

Equipped for a capacity of some 3 cwt. of sulphate of 
quinine daily, the Bandung Company has been enlarging 
its factory and laying down plant for producing other 
salts of quinine, such as chlorohydrate, bromo- 
hydrate, &c. 2 



1 The State grows cinchona on its own account in the Residency 
of the Preangers. The results of this industry — the Gouvernements- 
kinaondememing — were published quarterly in the Javasche Courant. 
Upon addressing their request to the Director of Agriculture, 
botanists, scientific institutions, and foreign Governments, through 
the medium of their diplomatic representatives, obtain free of cost 
small quantities of bark or cuttings of cinchona. 

2 Concerning quinine and its introduction to the Dutch Indies, see 
C. R. Markham, " Travels in Peru and India while superintending 
the collection of Cinchona plants and seeds in South America and 
their introduction into India" (London, 1862, 8vo). — K. W. van 
Gorkom, Die China cultur auf Java (Leipzig, 1879, ^ vo ) > an d the 
same writer's Kinologische Schetsen (Amsterdam, 1892, 8vo). — E. 
Prud'homme, Le quinquina. Culture, preparation, commerce (Paris, 
1902, large 8vo). 



236 JAVA 



VI. 



Indigo is one of the products of which the State 
renounced its monopoly, partially in 1854 and wholly 
in 1865 ; not without loss, for at that time the indigo 
industry was one of the most profitable and most widely 
developed in the Dutch Indies. Introduced perhaps 
by the Hindus, and certainly first prepared by them, as 
its name would seem to indicate (in Malay, Javanese, 
Sundanese, and Macassar nila = the Sanscrit nila 9 or 
"deep blue "), the indigo trade was already flourishing 
when the Portuguese and the Dutch first arrived. The 
natives were using it largely in dyeing, or batiking, their 
cloths ; even to-day they cultivate more than 50,000 acres. 

The cultivation and preparation of indigo was one of 
the industries which Van den Bosch was most anxious 
to develop, and one from which the natives appear to 
have suffered most severely. To-day, in addition to the 
native industry, which is carried on more especially to 
supply local needs, European planters have devoted some 
50,000 acres to the cultivation of indigo, this area being 
distributed throughout the provinces of Batavia, Peka- 
longan, Kediri, Surakarta, and Djokjakarta. The indigo 
of Djokjakarta, and particularly that of Surakarta, where 
the land is let on lease by the East Indian Government, 
is by far the most valued in Europe, and makes three- 
quarters of the total yield. 

The species of indigo cultivated in Java for the 
European market are the Guatemala x and the Natal 2 
varieties. The indigo plant, whose reddish, oblong leaves 
yield the colouring matter, grows best in the sawahs and 
on irrigable soil, in alternation with rice, or sometimes 
with sugar-cane. When the soil has been ploughed and 

1 Indigofera tinctoria L., /. pseudotinctoria, I. oligosperma D.C. : 
in Javanese, torn Presi, or Persian indigo. 

2 Indigofera leptostachya D.C. — Javanese torn Natal. Another kind 
of indigo produced in Java, whence the kind known in Malay as 
tarum kembang probably derives, is furnished by Indigofera anil L. 
Its Javanese name is tjanlik. 



AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 237 

manured the seeds are sown in frames, and the young 
plants are transplanted as soon as they are of suitable 
size. In five or six months the plant is fully developed ; 
its perfect maturity is announced by the flowering season. 
The bush is then earthed-up, and a first harvest gathered ; 
three months after a second crop of leaves is ready for 
removal, and this second harvest is far superior to the 
first. It is sometimes followed by a third and fourth, if 
the bush be rich in leaves. 

The leafy stalks, tied into bundles, are placed in tanks 
for the process of fermentation, which should last from 
four to six hours, A long experience is necessary before 
the watcher can divine when the fermentation has reached 
the correct stage. 

The greenish-yellow water which is drawn off from 
the fermentation tanks flows into the threshing tanks, 
in which the indigo becomes precipitated. It is sub- 
jected to a process of clarification which lasts for two 
or three hours ; it is then filtered, an operation requiring 
five or six hours ; then the paste, or sludge, of indigo 
is mixed with a definite quantity of water, and is boiled 
with the greatest precautions against burning. A second 
filtration leaves the product in such a state that it may 
be pressed to expel the residue of water. It then only 
remains to cut it into tablets, which should be left 
twenty-five days to dry. They are then polished, to 
remove any suspicion of mould and to give them a 
beautiful brilliant purple colour. 

The indigo market for Java is at Samarang ; the 
European entrepots are at Rotterdam and Amsterdam ; 
but a considerable quantity of the indigo bought by 
France — which is, with Germany and Russia, one of 
the best customers for this product — goes directly to 
Havre and Marseilles. 

The discovery of artificial indigo has, of course, been 
a blow to the industry, which, in Java at least, is relying 
more and more upon the Far Eastern market, and 
especially upon Japan. But after reaching the value of 
-£330,000 or more in 1898 (the yield being 1,094 ton s), 



238 JAVA 

its total production has fallen to 289 tons in 1906 and 
144 tons in 1907. The industry seems on the road to 
extinction ; a matter to be regretted, since agricultural 
labour is more healthy and usually furnishes products 
of superior quality, if more expensive, than industrial 
labour. 1 



VII. 

Among the smaller agricultural industries of Java, we 
must not omit to mention pepper and the valuable spices 
which long &go were an inexhaustible treasury for the 
Dutch. To-day Java produces some 3,863 piculs of 
prepared pepper (about 238 tons) and 625 piculs (38 tons) 
of mace. Cinnamon is no longer produced for exporta- 
tion ; cotton and kapok are not sufficient for local 
necessities, although the latter has been produced in 
unusual quantities during the last few years. Cocoa, on 
the other hand, has done extremely well ; its cultivation 
has spread rapidly in Samarang, Pasuruan, Besuki, Peka- 
longan, and Surakarta ; in 1907 the yield amounted to 
1,380 tons, having almost doubled in ten years. 2 The 
cocoa-palm was imported from America. 

The cultivation of the opium poppy is forbidden in the 
Dutch Indies, the State, as in French Indo-China, having 
reserved for itself the lucrative and immoral monopoly of 
this dangerous drug, in order to meet the necessities 
of the natives, and also to draw a large revenue from 
the noxious habit of opium-eating and smoking. 

The sale of opium in the hands of the Chinese, to 
whom it is leased, has been productive of such abuses 
that the Dutch Government has inaugurated the system 
of regie, upon the model of that employed in French 
Indo-China ; and this system, first installed in Madura, 

1 Concerning indigo, see Dr. G. von Georgievics, Der Indigo vom 
praktischen und theoretischern Standpunkt dargestellt (Leipzig- Vienna, 
1892, 8vo). 

8 Concerning cocoa, see A. Fauchere's Culture pratique du cacaoyer 
et preparation du cacao (Paris, 1906, large 8vo), 



AGRICULTURE: VARIOUS CROPS 239 

Surabaja, Pasuruan, Probolinggo, and Besuki, where it 
has given good results, has been gradually extended. In 
1901 the State built in Batavia a factory (Fabrick der 
Opiumregie) large enough to furnish all Java with 
opium. 



CHAPTER XII 

FORESTS AND MINES. INDUSTRY. COMMERCE. 

I. The forests of djati and of " natural woods." — II. The mines of 
Java ; the mining system ; petroleum. — III. Salt. — IV. Indus- 
tries : their character ; the industrial future of Java.— V. 
Institutions of credit and thrift. — VI. Internal trade and the 
means of transport and communication : roads, railways, 
rivers; steamer services between the various islands of the 
Archipelago. — The merchant marine of the Archipelago. — 
VII. Post and telegraphs. — VIII. Weights and measures. The 
monetary system. — IX. The export trade ; customs, transport. 



I. 

Java, and indeed the whole Archipelago, possesses a 
remarkable wealth of native vegetation. The bamboo, 
the areca-nut, the rattan-palm, the coco-palm, the 
banana, the breadfruit-tree, and a host of other palms, 
multiply with a fierce and vigorous growth. The native 
has had little ado in finding among them nearly all the 
necessities of his daily life. The forests properly so- 
called, which are wonderfully rich in species, have for a 
long time been neglected ; whence a deforestation in 
some parts so unreasonable that the Dutch Government 
has finally moved in the matter. It discovered, in the 
latter half of the nineteenth century, that certain forests, 
containing most valuable products, deserved a better fate 
than unchecked destruction. In 1869 the first Afforesta- 
tion Act was passed ; since then it has been fittingly 
improved and enlarged ; but so far the Government has 
not contemplated the extension of its prohibitions beyond 
Java and Madura. The State concerns itself very little, 

240 



FORESTS AND MINES 241 

even in the latter, with the " forests of natural woods " — 
literally wild woods (wildhoutbosschen) — and gives nearly 
all its attention to the preservation of the precious teak 
forests (djatibosschen), of which it reserves the monopoly. 
Certain of these forests have been leased to private 
undertakings, which are strictly supervised ; others are 
administered by the Residents. 

Teak, in the Dutch East Indies, is the wood principally 
used for ship-building and all kinds of permanent struc- 
tures. The odour of its natural oil keeps off the terrible 
termite, and even the teredo has the greatest trouble in 
piercing it. There are many varieties of teak, of various 
colours and qualities : thorny teak, flowering teak, oily 
teak, limestone teak, and above all the gimbal (gembel) 
teak, which is brown and greasy to the touch, and is 
preferred before all others for ship-building. 

Cultivated teak is valued far above the wild or natural 
timber. In 1907 the area of the teak-forests of Java and 
Madura was 1,665,000 acres ; this area the Government 
is doing its utmost to increase, planting teak wherever 
there is a waste or fallow piece of land, along the 
wayside, &c. 

At regular intervals the Government proceeds, at the 
seats of the Residencies, to lease its teak forests in sections 
of 250 to 990 acres ; occasionally, but rarely, as much as 
9,880 acres is leased. After a forest inspector has esti- 
mated the quantity of timber to be felled each year, the 
section is leased, for a term varying from two to ten 
years, for an annual royalty of 13 to 20 florins per cubic 
metre (about £1 to £1 12s. per cubic yard). The prin- 
cipal leaseholders are the Chinese, but two of the Dutch 
companies, the Javasche Boschexploitatie Maatschappij 
and the Nederlandsch Indische Houtaankap Maatschappij 
are large and important enterprises. 

In 1907 the Dutch Government derived from its forests 
(the sale of "wild woods" being included) a net profit 
of nearly .£200,000. 

Ebony — in great demand in France and China — and 
sandal- or santal-wood, for which the best customer is 

*7 



242 JAVA 

Germany ; eagle wood and laka wood (Mynistica iners ?), 
which is exported chiefly to Singapore, and iron-wood, 
are the most valuable of the woods found in the "wild 
woods," the supervision and extension of which will one 
day assure the Dutch Indies of a large yearly revenue. 1 



II. 

The State monopolies include not only the forests, but 
to a certain extent the mines and the production of salt. 

Legislation concerning the mineral wealth of the Indies 
is of quite recent date, although certain mines were 
exploited long before the advent of Europeans. It was 
only in 1895 that a mining law was promulgated in 
Holland ; but this law, we must admit, was sufficiently 
autocratic. The State arrogates by law the possession of 
the entire subsoil of the Indies ; the landowner who 
discovers a mine upon his property cannot become the 
owner, but only the concessionaire. He cannot prospect 
without permission, still less work the mine upon his 
own initiative. 

A permit for research or prospecting is given for three 
years. This may be prolonged by a maximum period of 
two years ; never more. Work must be commenced the 
first year, and the first applicant obtains the preference. 
The mining concession, which may be renewed in- 
definitely every seventy-five years, is only granted if the 
mineral sought for lies actually within the limits of the 
ground for which the permit is issued, and if its 
exploitation is technically practicable. 

The State imposes a fixed tax of 50 cents (equal 
to iod.) per hectare, or rather less than 2d. per acre, 
and 4 per cent, on the gross yield of the mine. The 
prospector's permit is subject to an annual tax of 5 cents 
per hectare — a little less than a halfpenny per acre. 

The products of prospecting may be disposed of 
without restriction up to a maximum which varies 

1 See Serre's V exploitation de for its de teck et autres bois a Java 
in L Agriculture de pays chauds, 1906, pp. 422-430. 



FORESTS AND MINES 243 

according to the mineral in question. Above this the 
royalty of 4 per cent, upon the gross yield becomes 
payable. 

Having the capital of Holland behind it, and being 
by no means anxious to establish powerful foreign 
companies within its empire, the Government of the 
Dutch East Indies grants prospectors' permits only to 
Dutchmen and to foreigners who have been domiciled 
for a certain period in Holland or the Dutch East 
Indies. The majority of the members of the board of 
every mining company must be Dutchmen or domiciled 
in the Indies. The concessionaire, if he does not reside 
in the Indies, must have a duly accredited representative, 
and the company must give proof of a sufficient financial 
capacity. 

Java, from the miner's point of view, is infinitely 
poorer than Sumatra and Borneo, and the Riouw 
Archipelago ; it produces only petroleum, a little iodide 
of copper, and manganese. The yield of petroleum — 
which is found in Samarang, Rembang, and Surabaja — 
amounted to 27,697,340 gallons in 1907 ; of iodide of 
copper some 28 tons were produced in Samarang ; and 
of manganese, which is confined to Djokjakarta, 4*5 tons 
were produced. 1 

Javanese petroleum is in the hands of a score of 
companies, the most important being the Industrial 
Petroleum Company of Dordrecht (Dortsche Petroleum- 
Industries-Maatschappij), which has a working capital 
of 12,000,000 florins. 

The capitalists of Holland are taking a great interest 
in the development of the petroleum industry in the 
Dutch Indies ; they have invested very large sums in 
order to fight more efficaciously against the competition 
of America and Russia. It is indubitable that the 
petroleum fields of Java constitute an enormous source 
of wealth, and that they are gradually capturing the 

1 See J. G. Bousquet's Les richesses minerales des Indes orientales 
neerlandaises in the Memoires et compte rendu des trav. de la Societe 
des Ingen. civil, de France (Paris, 1907, 8vo ; pp. 436 et seq.). 



244 JAVA 

markets of the Far East, of India, Indo-China, China 
Japan, and the Philippines. 



III. 

The preparation of salt, obtained from the saline 
springs which abound all over Java — there are 151 in 
the Regency of the Preangers alone — or from sea-water, 
is monopolised by the Government. Certain springs, 
such as those of Tji Ampel in the district of Krawang, 
yield a brine which is estimated to contain nearly 3 per 
cent, of salt. The natives, who are exclusively employed 
in the preparation of salt, often evaporate the saline water 
in great iron cauldrons, or kuwalis ; sometimes, as in the 
district of Kradenan in Samarang, they first of all con- 
centrate it in oblong tanks or wells, 7 or 8 feet 
wide, a trifle over 3 feet deep, and 30 feet long. 
These two methods of preparation may be undertaken 
by the natives upon payment of an annual royalty in 
proportion to the amount produced. 

In Madura the Government undertakes on its own 
behalf the manufacture of salt by European methods 
from sea-water, which is allowed, at high tide, to flow 
into a system of little locks or sluices, to enter a series of 
salt-pans, and deposit its salt by evaporation. 

In 1907 the State sold 1,390,738 piculs of salt, produced 
in Java and Madura, for 9,622,033 florins, or ^801,836. 

IV. 

The industries of the Dutch East Indies, with the 
exception of native specialities of purely local interest — 
pottery, coppersmith's work, basket-making, the forging 
of kreeses, the designing of batik sarongs, handkerchiefs, 
&c. — are still little more than a dependency of agricul- 
ture. The factories now built, or being built, in Java 
serve almost exclusively for the preparation of natural 
products : rice, coffee, sugar, tea, tobacco, quinine, 
indigo, &c. A few saw-mills and printing-works, soap, 



FORESTS AND MINES 245 

ice, and mi neral- water factories, can only be regarded 
as interesting experiments ; their scope is as yet too 
limited to allow us to predict a brilliant future for 
Javanese industries. 

The silk industry has hitherto yielded appreciable 
results only in the hands of the Chinese. 

The climate of Java is warm enough for the mulberry, 
but too damp ; the tree does not grow quickly. Silk- 
worms, under the influence of the constant heat, spin all 
the year round and lose their stamina ; while in Japan 
they cease to spin in the winter. 

It has been hoped that by means of hybridisation a 
bombyx might be obtained which would resist the climate ; 
but hitherto all the silk obtained by European makers 
has cost more than it has sold for, and there are now 
only three silkworm-breeding establishments in Java : the 
most important, that of Pangkalan (in Batavia), which is 
combined with a winding-factory, is the only one which 
has yielded its owner profits. It is the property of a 
Chinaman, who exports his raw silk to Hongkong and 
even to Lyons. 1 

There are two factors, however, which seem to ensure 
the future of Javanese industry. One is the abundance of 
cheap labour : the daily wage of the field-labourer, 
excepting at exceptional times or for tending to ex- 
ceptional crops, does not exceed 9d. or iod. ; and 
although the Javanese is not muscular he is sober, skilful, 
docile, and capable of doing excellent work. 

Secondly, although Java possessess no coal-mines, 
Borneo and Sumatra are rich in coal measures. These 
two factors are important elements of success. 

V. 

The capitalists of Holland turn naturally to the East 
Indies, and have powerfully contributed to the develop- 
ment of agricultural products in the colonies. They have 

1 See P. Serre's La Sericulture et V Industrie sericigene a Java^ in 
V Agriculture des fays Chauds, 1906, pp. 347-349. 



246 JAVA 

it within their power to develop the production of rnanu* 
factured articles. 

For a long period they did not care to run the risks of 
investment in manufacturing enterprises, on account of 
the exacting State monopolies, which stood in the way 
of all private enterprise. In 1828 the Bank of Java 
(Javasche Bank) began to place its reserves at the disposal 
of Dutch merchants in the Indies. In 1837 the Govern- 
ment began to introduce, or rather to allow, the free 
labour of the natives ; and the Indo-Dutch Banking 
Company (Nederlandsch-Indische Escompto-Maatschap- 
pij) opened large credit accounts for the benefit of private 
agricultural enterprises. In 1862 these accounts had in- 
creased to such an extent that the money market in Java 
was badly strained ; in 1863 the mother-country found it 
necessary to come to the rescue, and realised that it was 
to her interest to do so. The Indo-Dutch Bank of Com- 
merce (Nederlandsch-Indische Handels Bank) of Amster- 
dam, the Bank of Rotterdam, and the Rotterdam Inter- 
national Society of Commerce and Credit (Interna- 
, tionale Crediet en Handelsvereeniging " Rotterdam ") 
opened branches in Batavia, but were anticipated by the 
English " Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China." 

The Indo-Dutch Bank of Commerce was the only one 
to prosper, which in 1881 founded in Amsterdam the 
Colonial Bank (Koloniale Bank). 

In 1878 the " Amsterdam " Society of Commerce 
(Handelsvereeniging "Amsterdam") entered upon a com- 
mercial career, and also advanced money to finance 
agricultural undertakings. 

In 1884 the crisis brought about by the tremendous 
fall in the price of sugar ruined nearly all these institu- 
tions. The Indo-Dutch Commercial Bank saved itself 
only by reconstruction under a new name, reappearing 
as the Indo-Dutch Agricultural Society (Nederlandsch- 
Indische Landbouw Maatschappij). The crisis was soon 
^ over, and the banks developed as the island prospered, 
with whose fortunes their own were bound up. To-day 
the following institutions give a solid support to the enter- 



INDUSTRY— COMMERCE 247 

prises which are incessantly springing up throughout the 
Dutch Indies : the Bank of Java, the Dutch Society of 
Commerce, the Indo-Dutch Discount Society, the Indo- 
Dutch Agricultural Society, the Indo-Dutch Bank of 
Commerce, the International Society of Credit and 
Commerce, the " Amsterdam " Commercial Society, the 
Colonial Bank, the Principalities Agricultural Company 
(Cultuur-Maatschappij der Vorstenlanderi), the Indo-Dutch 
Bank and Credit Society, the Indo-Dutch Mortgage Bank 
(Nederlandsch-Indische Hypotheekbank) of Batavia, and 
the Javanese Mortgage Bank {Javasche Hypotheekbank) 
of Amsterdam, which has its branch establishment in 
Surabaja. 1 

It is perhaps a pity that there are no similar institutions 
to come to the aid of the native industries and native 
agricultural enterprises, which are both as yet in a 
rudimentary stage. Lacking sufficient technical know- 
ledge, without traditions, nor an education which might 
impel them to engage in commerce or manufactures, the 
Javanese masses are devoid of the funds necessary, to 
equip any enterprise in a modern and remunerative 
manner. 

For centuries the Javanese has been confined to his 
piece of land ; forbidden all ambition ; deprived of the 
fruit of his labour, which he has yielded, the more surely 
to ruin himself, to the Chinaman or Arab ; and the 
native chiefs have been even more absolute in their cruel 
indifference than the Dutch Government itself. 

To-day Holland wishes to uplift the native ; to render 
him henceforth more capable of adding to and sharing in 
the prosperity of Java ; later on, no doubt, to help him to 
direct his own destinies. But the native has neither fore- 
sight nor an inclination to save ; and he dislikes the 
anxieties of commerce, in which he feels that he is still 

1 See N. P. Van den Berg, Coup d*ml sur les institutions de com- 
merce et de credit aux hides Neerlandaises, in Expos, univ. intern, de 
igoo a Paris. Guide a travers la section des hides Neerlandaises 
(The Hague, 1900, 8vo, p. 54 et seq.), and the article by the same 
author, Crediet insiellingen in the Encycl. v. Ned. Indie. 



248 JAVA 

too much the novice. Agricultural enterprises might 
succeed in the hands of chiefs who are possessed of 
capital ; but they are too often completely idle, and 
utterly inept in everything but the pursuit of trashy plea- 
sures. The masses possess nothing ; so that the great 
necessity on all sides is education, and under certain 
circumstances, credit ; for European trade has expanded 
as it has solely by means of credit. 

The year 1897 saw the foundation in the Residency of 
Banjumas of a credit establishment for natives : the 
" Poerwokertosche Hulp-, Spaar-en Landbouwcrediel-bank." 
This bank has already been of very great service, and 
native trade in the region of Poerwokerto has greatly 
developed, which leads one to hope that the bank will 
soon open branches, or that rival establishments will be 
founded in all parts of Java. 

The propaganda instituted among the Javanese with 
the object of inducing them to put by little hoards in 
the savings-bank, is also bearing fruit. Each year there 
is a slight increase in the number of accounts and the 
total of the sums saved. That this increase is not 
greater is due, not only to the Javanese lack of pru- 
dence, whether native or acquired, and the suspicious 
traditionalism of the Javanese, but to his actual poverty. 
To be able to save he must first have enough to eat; 
such is not always his condition, even upon the fertile 
soil of Java. 

VI. 

The transport of articles of commerce, both in Java 
and out of it, is facilitated by excellent means of com- 
munication, both by land and by sea. 

Thanks to Daendels, who gave the first impulse to 
road-making, and built the best possible type of road for 
the country, the island is traversed from east to west by 
a magnificent double highway, which brought fresh life 
to the north of the island. Since the time of Daendels 
roads have been built almost everywhere, with more or 
less success, the work of supervision having for a long 



INDUSTRY— COMMERCE 249 

time been left to the native chiefs, while the work was 
performed by means of corvees. The introduction of 
free labour had an excellent result upon road-making, 
as upon everything else. It was obviously to the interest 
of the planters that the roads leading from their plan- 
tations or factories should be kept in good condition, 
since they depended upon them for the transport of their 
products ; the result was that they expended pains upon 
them by which every one benefited. 

The foundation of a department of bridges and high- 
ways in Java has been of great benefit to the country. 
The engineers have built solid bridges across the 
bandjirSy or torrential watercourses, replacing the frail 
bamboo girders which were constructed by the natives, 
and were periodically carried away, thus leaving portions 
of the island absolutely isolated, sometimes for months 
at a time. 

But the roads, except in the more inaccessible places, 
where they are in the worst repair, and also the sole 
means of communication, do not now play the prepon- 
derating part in the commercial life of Java. Less and 
less frequently are they furrowed by the heavy glindings 
(native transport wagons). Both the white man and the 
brown have turned, with equal enthusiasm, from the 
road to the railway ; a fact which proves that the brown 
man is perfectly accessible to the victories of progress. 
For a long time the State, actuated by a narrow, dis- 
trustful, and egotistical jealousy of its domination in 
Java, refused to allow the construction of railways. 

In 1863, however, it granted permission to Messrs. 
Poolman, Fraser and Kol to construct and exploit a line 
of railroad running from Samarang, through Surakarta 
and Djokjakarta, to Ambarawa. In 1868 the same 
company received permission to build a line from 
Batavia to Buitenzorg. What with various unforeseen 
contingencies and impediments, some of which were not 
easily overcome, and delay in the actual work of con- 
struction, these two lines were not finally opened to the 
public until 1872. 



250 JAVA 

Their success was complete, in respect both of the 
services rendered to the planters and natives and the 
profits realised by the builders. 

Since then the State of Holland has constructed rail- 
ways (Spoorwegen) both in Java and Madura. To-day the 
two islands contain some 1,320 miles of railroad, earning , 
-£923,600 in net profits. The railway now traverses the 
great island from end to end ; starting from Batavia, 
whence it throws toward the west two small branch 
lines to Anjer and Labun respectively, it there turns 
southward, serving Buitenzorg and Sukabumi ; turns 
sharply to the north, reaches Padalarang, and sends out 
a second branch to Batavia, encircling the whole pro- 
vince of that name. The main line then turns south- 
ward once more to Bandung, crosses the Preangers, the 
Residency of Banjumas, the two Principalities of Djok- 
jakarta and Surakarta (Solo), meets the old Samarang 
railway, runs westward to Surabaja, and then encircles 
the western portion of the island to end at Banju- 
wangi and Situbondo. This magnificent system is com- 
pleted by a steam tramway system (Stoomtramwegen) 
which runs along the north coast of Java, covering a 
length or 1,550 miles and bringing in a revenue of 
.£800,000. 

Transport in the centre of Java profits little by the 
narrow watercourses by which the surface of the land 
is furrowed, owing to the torrential nature of these 
streams, and the wealth of their alluvial deposits. Few 
of them can be ascended by anything larger that the 
native prahou, and even so the ascent is extremely 
slow. Only the Tjiliwong of Batavia, the Tjitarum, the 
Tjimanuk, the Tjitanduwi, the Seraju, and the Solo and 
Brantas Rivers are navigable for larger vessels, and only 
for a small proportion of their courses. All such work 
as the cutting of canals and the cutting or dredging of 
channels has been so quickly rendered useless by the 
constant deposit of silt or mud that further attempts 
to improve these rivers were long ago discouraged. 

To turn to the sea, however, we find that there is a 



INDUSTRY— COMMERCE 251 

very active movement between the various ports of Java, 
and between Java and the rest of the Archipelago. The 
Royal Packet-Boat Company (Koninklijke Packetvaart 
Maatschappij), which is subsidised by the State, obtains 
much of this traffic. In 1907 this company owned 
51 packet-boats, carrying 407,965 passengers. An Eng- 
lish company, with its headquarters at Singapore, serves 
the ports of Java, of the eastern coast of Sumatra, and 
the western coast of Borneo, and competes, to a certain 
extent, with the former company. The Royal Packet- 
Boat Company carries, besides its passengers, the salt 
produced by the State, and coal from Ombilin for 
Government use. 

In 1907 the movements of the mercantile marine in 
the Dutch East Indies, exclusive of the Royal Packet- 
Boat Company, were represented by the following 
figures : 190 steamers, 145 European sailing-vessels, and 
2,327 native sailing-vessels ; in all 2,795 vessels, with a 
capacity of some 567,000 cubic yards, or some 430,000 
tons displacement. For Java and Madura the figures 
were 1,640 vessels and 335,000 cubic yards capacity. 



VII. 

Transactions with the interior of Java, the Outer 
Possessions, and the rest of the world are facilitated 
by an excellent system of posts, telegraphs, and tele- 
phones. 

On the 31st of December, 1907, the number of post- 
offices in the Dutch Indies was 291 ; there were 176 
telegraph offices in the cities and 367 in the railway- 
stations, and there were 58 public telephone offices. 
There were 5,600 miles of telegraph lines, 8,740 miles 
of wires, and 3,250 miles of submarine cables. 

VIII. 

The adoption by Holland of the metric system of 
weights and measures, and her introduction of that 



252 JAVA 

system into the Dutch East Indies, has greatly facilitated 
the conduct of trade. 

The Dutch monetary system, on the other hand, 
which is quite peculiar to Holland, is troublesome to 
the foreigner. The pound sterling is accepted every- 
where, but the importation of Asiatic coinage into the 
Dutch Indies is strictly prohibited ; so that the first care 
of the merchant or the tourist, upon landing at Tand- 
jong Priok, is to obtain a supply of Dutch currency 
from a money-changer or a bank- — that is, if he has not 
already done so before beginning the voyage. The 
monetary standard is the piece of 10 florins, weighing 
672 grammes, the purity being '9, and the value that 
of 6*048 grammes of pure gold. The standard of silver 
money is the florin or gulden, weighing 10 grammes, 
containing '945 of pure silver, or 9*45 grammes. Its 
value varies from 20*16 pence to 19*968 pence ; approxi- 
mately twelve are equivalent to the pound sterling 
English. The silver coins are : the gulden or florin, 
divided into 100 cents ; the rijksdaalder, or rix-dollar, 
worth i\ florins, or the value of an American dollar ; 
the half florin, the quarter florin (kwartje), and the 
tenth of a florin (dubbeltje). 

The principal golden coin is the piece of 10 florins, 
worth 1 6s. 8d. 

The smaller coins are : the 5-cent piece, in nickel 
(worth one penny), the 2j-cent piece in bronze (worth 
a halfpenny), and the i-cent and J-cent pieces, also 
in bronze. 

IX. 

The transportation of the products of the Indies to 
Europe and vice versa is effected, for the majority of 
private exporters and importers, by means of the Rotter- 
damsche Lloyd line of steamers, and the Dutch Navi- 
gation Company {Stoomvaartmaatsckappij Nederland). 
These lines also carry for the Government by annual 
contract. 

The tariffs and customs duties have been profoundly 



INDUSTRY— COMMERCE 253 

modified since the fall of the system of compulsory 
crops, and since the declaration of Singapore as a free 
port. 

In 1872 the narrow protectionist system which prac- 
tically forbade foreigners admittance to the Indies, to the 
great detriment of prosperity of the islands, was abolished, 
and the flags of all nations were admitted on equal terms 
to the open ports. The enormous development of 
Singapore has since then led Holland to adopt a policy 
progressing towards free trade ; abolishing or diminish- 
ing the heavy anchorage and pilot dues, and creating a 
series of free ports, in which exports and imports alike 
are subject to the provisions of commercial treaties 
between Holland and the interested Powers. 1 

The total value of the imports received by the Dutch 
Indies in 1907, including those destined for the Govern- 
ment as well as for private merchants, and inclusive also 
of gold and merchandise, was -£20,605,892 ; Java and 
Madura alone absorbing imports to the value of 
.£12,726,722. The value of the exports amounted to 
.£30,379,095, of which amount Java and Madura accounted 
for £17,636,249. 

The chief imports are rice, such edibles as butter, 
cheese, flour, pork, &c, metals, machinery, woven stuffs, 
and manufactured articles generally. The principal 

1 Article 130 of the Regeeringsreglement (Fundamental Law of the 
Dutch Indies) : " Every vessel belonging to a nation friendly to the 
kingdom of Holland is admitted to the ports of the Dutch Indies 
open to general trade, provided that it observes the general and 
local regulations. To the other ports only native vessels, and those 
which are authorised to take part in the coasting trade under the 
Dutch flag are admitted." 

The ports open to foreign trade are called vrijhavens (free ports), 
and in such ports the Dutch Government imposes no restrictions 
or duties upon the entry and exit of ships or merchandise. The 
only official free port is Riouw, but in practice the ports of 
Bengkalis and Sabang (both in Sumatra) are treated as free 
ports. The Inlandsche havens (native ports) are the ports of the 
native princes and peoples whose islands are not directly governed 
by Holland, although they levy the customs duties. The entry 
to these ports is free to all vessels. 



254 JAVA 

products exported are coffee, sugar, tobacco, tea, quinine, 
dnchona, indigo, copra, and various oils and pelts. 

The French, despite their interests in the Far East, 
and the neighbourhood of Indo-China, play a very 
small part in the carrying trade of the Dutch Indies. 

On the other hand, the figures relating to Great Britain 
(in 1907) amounted to 563 vessels and 3,554 tons ; 
Germany comes next with 318 vessels and 1,231 tons ; 
Holland with 169 vessels and 1,244 tons ; but France 
comes after Norway, with 26 vessels only and 84 tons of 
merchandise ; the lowest figures. In the same year the 
exports from France to the Dutch Indies fell from 
-£166,660 to .£108,500, and the exports from Saigon from 
;£5°8,38o to ^308,300 ; the sole cause of this decline 
being the commercial apathy of the French. These 
sums are indeed miserable beside the ^2,833,330 worth 
of English exports and the ^4,083,330 worth from 
Singapore. 

X. 

Passenger traffic from Europe to the Indies is effected, 
with all the comfort and ease imaginable, by large steam- 
ship companies owned by the principal European 
countries. The departures of the steamers are so 
arranged among the companies that approximately 
speaking a steamer passes any given point once in every 
three days. The most important lines are the Rotter- 
dam Lloyd and the Nederland of Amsterdam (Stoom- 
vaartmaatshoppij Nederland). Every other Saturday a 
boat owned by one of these lines leaves Europe with 
the mails. The Rotterdam Lloyd steamers touch at 
Southampton, Lisbon, Tangier, Gibraltar, Marseilles, 
Egypt, Ceylon, and vice versa, and connect with vessels 
running to the various ports of the Archipelago. The 
price of the single passage, not including wine or beer, 
from Rotterdam to Padang, Batavia, Samarang, or 
Surabaja, is ^71 10s. first class and ^41 15s. second 
class. From Marseilles the fares are £67 2s. and 



INDUSTRY—COMMERCE 255 

^38 7s. No charge is made for children under three ; 
and children under twelve pay half the full fare. 

Every adult first- or second-class passenger has the 
right to take with him, free of payment, a cubic metre of 
luggage — about 34 cubic feet — and a deck chair. Extra 
luggage must be paid for at the rate of £1 10s. per cubic 
metre. The cabin trunk or portmanteaus to be kept in 
the cabin must not exceed nf inches in depth ; and no 
nailed cases are allowed in the cabins. Ordinary luggage, 
with legible labels bearing the name of the owner and 
his destination, is placed in the hold, where it is accessible 
on certain days, excepting Sunday. 

The Nederland carries passengers at the same charges 
and under the same conditions ; but it sails from Amster- 
dam, stops at Southampton, Lisbon, Tangier, Algiers, 
Genoa, Port Said, Suez, Perim, Aden, Colombo, Sabang, 
Deli-Penang, Asahan, Singapore, Batavia, Samarang, and 
Surabaja. 

The North German Lloyd line sails once a fortnight 
from Bremen and Hamburg alternately. It touches at 
Rotterdam, Antwerp, Southampton, Gibraltar, Algiers, 
Genoa, Naples, Port Said, Suez, Aden, Colombo, Penang, 
and Singapore. At Singapore passengers tranship on board 
the steamers of the Roninklijke Paketvaartmaatschappij 
for Batavia, Samarang, and Surabaja. The price of the 
single passage from Bremen, Hamburg, Rotterdam, 
Antwerp, or Southampton, exclusive of wine or beer, is 
.£66 first class and -£44 second ; from Gibraltar, Algiers, 
Genoa, or Naples the first-class fare is ^61 12s. and the 
second-class fare ^41 16s. Each passenger may take 441 lb. 
of luggage free, the excess dues being about 10s. per cwt. 

The Messageries Maritimes run a fortnightly service 
from Marseilles, corresponding with the mails for 
Batavia. Passengers for Samarang and Surabaja are 
furnished by the agents of the company at Batavia with 
railway tickets for either of these cities. 

The ports touched at are Port Said, Djibouti, Aden, 
Colombo, and Singapore (where the Batavia sfeamer is 
joined). The passage-money to Batavia, Samarang, or 



256 JAVA 

Surabaja, wine included, is ^67 first class, £/\6 4s. second 
class, and .£24 4s. third class. 

First- and second-class passengers are allowed 330 lb. 
(150 kilos) of luggage free of charge ; passengers paying 
for the exclusive use of a first-class cabin may take 551 lb. 
(250 kilos) of luggage free. 1 The excess charge is £1 
per 220 lb. (per 100 kilos). Cabin trunks must not be 
more than 15! inches deep or wide, nor 31^ inches long. 

The abundant comfort and the comparatively low 
terms afforded by the Messageries Maritimes brings that 
company passengers of all nationalities. 

Not only are merchants, financiers, and engineers flock- 
ing to Java ; but for the last fifteen years there has been 
quite an influx of tourists of all nationalities, who have 
come to admire the " pearl of the Archipelago," which is 
also the fowl that lays the golden eggs ; and more 
especially to continue, from Benares to Angkor Wat, and 
from Angkor to Batavia, the pilgrimage of admiration 
that even ungrateful humanity is forced to admit the due 
of the Hindu genius. 

1 The traveller should take with him as little as possible in the way 
of unnecessary clothes and boxes ; he can easily obtain all he needs 
in Batavia, or the other large towns of Java, and at very reasonable 
prices ; especially in the case of tropical suits of white cloth or linen, 
which are cheaper and better than those to be obtained at home. 
Besides the necessary linen, pyjamas, cholera-belts, &c, the traveller 
should buy for the journey a couple of blue reefer suits, a light 
lounge suit for the afternoons, and a dinner-jacket. Two suits of 
khaki will be useful. To these he should add a sun-helmet, a travel- 
ling cap, a soft felt or tweed hat, an overcoat, two pairs of boots or 
shoes, slippers, and stylograph, a photographic outfit, an umbrella 
and a parasol, a dressing-case, a cabin trunk, a collapsible pigskin 
bag, a strong linen or jute hold-all or kit-bag, a trunk for the hold, 
and a cane deck-chair (which he can buy at Marseilles). He will 
then possess the indispensable minimum. A woman will require, in 
addition to certain of the above articles, a few summer frocks, plenty 
of peignoirs, tea-gowns, and hats, all very light, and a good warm 
cloak for the evening. Some women prefer a sun-helmet with 
gauze veil rather than a hat. The above are merely general indica- 
tions ; the traveller can add to this minimum according to his purse 
and his individual tastes. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE OUTER POSSESSIONS (BUITENBEZITTINGEN). 
SUMATRA AND THE ARCHIPELAGO OF RIOUW 
LINGGA. 

I. The various divisions of the " Outer Possessions," 'and the im- 
portance of Sumatra. — II. The dimensions, physical aspect, 
and coast-line of Sumatra.— III. The rivers and the sea-coast 
of Sumatra. — IV. The climate, flora, and fauna. — V. The 
native races ; their origin, beliefs, and manners. — VI. The 
principal languages : the most useful language for the visitor to 
or inhabitant of Sumatra. 



I. 

The " Outer Possessions " of the Dutch East Indies 
comprise : (i) all the larger of the Sunda Islands, except- 
ing Java and Madura — that is, Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, 
and their immediate neighbours ; (2) all the lesser 
of the Sunda Islands — Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, 
Sumba, Alor, Timor, Rotti, Kei, Aru, &c. ; (3) the 
Moluccas and the Dutch portion of New Guinea. Very 
much larger than Java and Madura collectively, often 
individually larger, and often as rich in natural pro- 
ducts, they are inferior in the number of their inhabi- 
tants and in their civilisation. 

From the administrative point of view the Buiten- 
bezittingen have been divided into seventeen Residencies 
or Governments, established without much regard to 
ethnological facts, but rather according to their economic 
value, their political situation with regard to the central 
Dutch power. Sumatra contains three of these Resi- 
dencies : nine if we count the Riouw Lingga Archipelago, 

18 257 



258 JAVA 

the Banka islands, and Billiton or Blitung. Dutch 
Borneo, vast as it is, contains but two ; Celebes and its 
dependencies two ; the Moluccas two ; Timor, the Flores, 
Sumba and Rotti one ; Bali and Lombok one. 

Sumatra is by far the most important of these Outer 
Possessions. Scarcely smaller than Borneo, some four 
times the size of Java, from which it is separated by the 
Straits of Sunda, it has an area of 180,380 square miles 
if we include its dependencies, or 167,480 square miles if 
taken alone ; in short, its area, comparable to that of 
Spain, is thirteen times that of the Netherlands. Its 
population, on the other hand, is only 3,189,027 ; an 
absurd figure when compared to the dense population of 
Java, or with the wide expanse of Sumatra itself, which 
might easily contain and support some seventy-five 
million human beings. 

We have here the reason why Sumatra, whose soil and 
subsoil hold their own easily with those of Java in the 
matter of mineral and agricultural wealth, is only now 
commencing to attract the attention of the Dutch. Java 
is a country of magnificent realisation : Sumatra has 
only a great future. More advantageously placed than 
Java, on the threshold of the ocean highway from tire 
West to the Far East, a close neighbour of the Malay 
Peninsula and of India, it seems to guard the entry to 
the China Sea, to Indo-China, China, and Japan. 

This advantageous position, and a more complete 
knowledge of its natural resources, are to-day leading the 
Dutch Government to develop Sumatra with tenacious 
energy, in spite of the courage, independence, or fanaticism 
of populations which render the national organisation of 
the country a far more difficult task than the organisation 
of thirty millions of Javanese has been. 

II. 

Just as Java has often been compared, in respect of its 
shape and orientation, to Cuba, so Sumatra has been 
compared with the great French colony of Madagascar, 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 259 

The extent and configuration of the two islands, each 
of which presents one almost rectilinear coast bordering 
on profound oceanic depths, while the other coast, much 
indented, slopes gently to a shallower sea ; each of 
which is traversed by a backbone of mountain ranges, 
running in parallel chains from one extremity of the 
island to the other ; the relative insalubrity of the coastal 
regions as contrasted with the hot but very healthy 
climate of the plateaux and valleys of the interior ; all 
these facts contribute to a very real resemblance. 

It would be more fitting, however, to compare Sumatra 
to Java, especially in respect of its geological, orographical, 
and hydrographical constitution; Java in many ways 
being but an attenuated continuation of Sumatra. 

Sumatra, like Java and Borneo, is largely formed of 
strata of the tertiary period, although it also contains 
two schistous formations, one of which is anterior to 
the carboniferous period. The tertiary series is more 
complete than in Java ; the numerous volcanoes, so 
characteristic of the whole Archipelago, ar6 due to the 
quaternary period. 

In Sumatra, which is still only partially explored, there 
have already been discovered ninety volcanoes, of which 
twelve are now active ; they are, counting from north to 
south : Sinabung, Sibajak, Pusuk Bukit, Sorik Berapi, 
Pasaman, Singgalang, Merapi, Talang, Korintji, Kaba, 
Dempo, and Krakatau. These volcanoes are scattered 
amidst the series of mountainous groups which, under the 
name of the Barisan Mountains {Bukit Barisari) run the 
whole length of the island ; closely approaching the 
western coast, and attaining their widest development in 
the southern portion of Sumatra. Whether naked or 
covered with verdure, majestically graceful or breached 
and shattered by their own eruptions, grouped in twos 
and threes, enclosing narrow valleys, or isolated and over- 
looking some fertile plain which they enrich and devastate 
alternately, surrounded by threatening vapours, or bearing 
in their craters a great circular lake of water, these 
volcanoes are the creative, the regulating, and often the 



260 JAVA 

perturbing factors of the orographic and hydrographic 
history of Sumatra. Their average height runs from 
9,000 to nearly 12,000 feet. 

The first volcanic height of the Bukit Barisan en- 
countered by the traveller whose direction is westward 
from the north-eastern corner of the island, is Sinabung ; 
then the range splits up into parallel chains, which sur- 
round the vast lacrustine lake called the Sea or Lake of 
Toba, whose area is about 785 square miles, and its 
depth from 1,300 to 1,470 feet. A number of Batak 
villages are established upon its banks ; they live by 
fishing and hunting rather than by agriculture or industry. 

Then we come to Mount Malintang ; then to Mount 
Pasaman or Ophir; 1 isolated and majestic, but uncertain 
and irascible in temper. Then, to the south of the 
beautiful Masang River, we reach Manindju, whose 
amputated summit bears the lake of the same name, 
whose slightly sulphurous waters flow into the Indian 
Ocean. Then follows Singalang ; then Merapi, on whose 
summit, so the Islamites pretend, the ark of Noah rested 
after the Deluge. This region, cut up into innumerable 
valleys which run between the spurs of the mountains, 
contains another lake of considerable size, though its 
area is only one-eleventh of that of the Lake of Toba : 
the Sea of Singkarah. Further south still the chain 
continues past Talang and Korintji, or Indrapura (the 
dwelling of Indra, or of the gods, in the eyes of the 
natives), always in eruption, its base surrounded by a 
system of lakes, all smaller than the Seas of Toba and 
Singkarah. As we approach the southern extremity of 
the island the volcanoes, although less majestic, redouble 
their activity ; here is Kaba, pointed like a sugar-loaf ; 
Dempo, hailed by the Malays as the cradle of their race ; 

1 So named because the old Portuguese navigators thought they 
had rediscovered the Ophir whence King Solomon drew the gold 
employed in building the Temple. Ophir has also been located in 
the east of Malacca, whence the name of Mount Ophir, sometimes 
given to Gunung Ledang, which contains considerable quantities of 
gold. Its actual location is in the Zambesi district. 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 261 

Radja Besar, and Krakatau or Rakata. The rumbling 
voice of Dempo keeps the inhabitants of all the neigh- 
bouring valleys for ever on the alert, with bated breath ; 
and for three years, from 1875 to 1878, Kaba sent forth 
rivers of lava. But Krakatau, upon its little inhabited 
island, after three months of low rumblings, and ex- 
plosions of smoke and flame, which provided the many 
tourists who, in May, 1883, came thither from Batavia, 
with a striking and somewhat alarming spectacle, was 
the centre of an eruption famous in the history of 
volcanoes. This eruption reached its apogee on the 27th 
of August. For more than a month it vomited torrents of 
rocks and ashes, the latter reaching a height of seventeen 
miles and covering a stretch of nearly a thousand miles ; 
obscuring the sun, and falling in a cloud of cinders upon 
the Keeling Islands (Cocos Islands), in the Indian Ocean. 
It seemed as though the amazing convulsions of this 
unfortunate island would shatter the very foundations of 
the globe. At Batavia, from the 26th to the 29th of August, 
the horizon remained obscured, and all Java was shaken by 
an extraordinary tidal wave, by subterranean shocks, and 
the sound as of a distant cannonade. Anjer and Tjaringin 
on the Javanese side of the Straits of Sunda, Benawang 
and Telok Betong on the Sumatra side, were utterly 
erased by a gigantic wave, 120 feet in height ; not a trace 
was left of house, or crop, or human being. More than 
forty thousand persons were swept away and drowned ; 
only the keeper of the lighthouse, which was 130 feet in 
height, was saved ; the wave merely extinguishing his light. 
But over an area of fourteen square miles, all living crea- 
tures were burned to death ; and the two hundred inhabi- 
tants of the island of Sibesi disappeared beneath the waves. 
The shores of the Straits of Sunda were completely 
altered in their configuration ; the entire southern portion 
of the island of Krakatau had disappeared, to be replaced 
by a gulf nearly 1,000 feet deep ; but the mass of 
stones and cinders which were blown away had actually 
formed new islets and new patches of land, and had 
doubled the size of the Deserted Isle (Verlaten). 



262 JAVA 

The explosion of Krakatau was heard in the Philip- 
pines, and in Japan, and was followed by a rain of 
cinders ; over all the southern portion of Indo-China 
as far as Lao, it sounded like the dull and incessant 
discharge of countless artillery ; it was heard, though less 
loudly, as far as Europe ; in America, along the Pacific 
coast, it caused submarine tremblings and movements of 
the sea that for a moment seemed to threaten to ravage 
the coast ; and its tidal wave reached Madagascar, where 
masses of cinders and huge fragments of pumice were 
carried by the ocean currents. 

To-day the terrible volcano, as well as the island, 
is reclad in a magnificent mantle of foliage, and has 
resumed its benignant aspect. 1 



III. 

The rivers of Sumatra, together with the volcanoes, 
are the creative elements of the island. The great eastern 
plain is formed almost wholly of their alluvial deposits, 
and is slowly but surely being augmented by their con- 
tinuous action. Richer in alluvial matter than the rivers 
of Java, on account of the enormous rainfall of Sumatra, 
these rivers have otherwise the same characteristics as 
those of the smaller island. On the steep western flank 
of the island, shut in between the coast and the mountain 
chains which border it, they are short, torrential, and 
rarely navigable. One of the most important is the 
Singkel, formed by the confluence of the Simpang Kanan 
(the right-hand Simpang) and the Simpang Kiri (the left- 
hand Simpang). 

The rivers of the eastern watershed flow across the great 
alluvial plain, leisurely draining the mountains of their 
waters ; their course is often majestic, but impeded by 

1 See C. Dietrich, edited by Prince Roland Bonaparte : Les pre- 
mieres nouvelles concernant leruption du Krakatau en 1883 dans les 
insulindes (Paris, 1883, large 8vo) ; R. O. M. Verbeek, Krakatau 
(Batavia, 1886, large 8vo). 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 263 

silt ; and they finally reach the sea through numerous 
muddy channels. 

Of these rivers the chief is the Asahan, which drains 
the enormous Lake of Toba ; this, for a portion of its 
length, is navigable by steamers. Next is the Indrapura, 
which waters the lowlands of Padang, and finishes its 
individual course by dividing into several branches, of 
which three are the Sungi (river) Sindang, the Sungi 
Lunang, and the Sungi Tapan. Other rivers are the 
Rokan, which flows into the narrow Malacca Straits, after 
a journey of more than 120 miles, through a muddy 
estuary ; the Siak, formed by the confluence of the 
Tapung Kanan (the right-hand Tapan) with the Tapung 
Kiri (the left-hand Tapan), which flows into the Brouwer 
Strait ; the Kampar, the Indragiri, which issues from the 
highlands of Padang, traverses the Sea or Lake of Sing- 
karah, under the name of the Ombilin, waters the coal 
country, and finally debouches opposite the Lingga 
Archipelago, in the great Gulf of Amphitrite ; the 
Djambi, springing from Indrapura, and swelled by the 
Batang * Hari and the Tambesi, is the most beautiful 
and the largest of all. Opposite Djambi it has a width 
of 1,300 feet, and at low water a depth of about 16 feet ; 
but the least increase of tide or current doubles its depth. 
Steamers of considerable tonnage can lie 600 or 700 
yards inland ; and native vessels (prahous or praus) some 
900 yards. 

The batang (or river) of Palembang, the Musi, is the 
only river to bear comparison with the Djambi. Below 
Palembang it splits up into a number of channels, which 
spread out amidst a vast, unhealthy swamp, covering an 
area of some 4,600 miles. These subsidiary channels 
slowly deposit their suspended wealth of mud among the 
mangroves, thus gradually creating new land. Native 
tradition states that Palembang, to-day 55 miles inland, 
was once a seaport ; but through the centuries the 
alluvial ooze of the river has pushed the shore far out into 

1 Batang means " river " in Sumatra ; the Malay kali and the 
Sundanese tji have the same meaning. 



264 JAVA 

sea. The principal branch of the Musi, the Susang, 
which flows into the Banka narrows, is accessible during 
the rains to vessels of considerable tonnage, and to vessels 
of moderate draught the whole year round. 

The changeable nature of the coast hereabouts makes 
landing always an uncertain, and often an unhealthy 
business. The indentations of the shore are imper- 
manent, and the muddy barriers of the Sumatra coast 
makes it no easy matter to establish practicable ports or 
landings. We can foresee that in the west, and more 
rapidly in the east, the immense mother-island will slowly 
gather to her shores the chaplet of rocks and shoals and 
islands which guard them from north to south. These 
islands, which are parallel to the western coast, to which 
they serve as a kind of outer barrier, have a total area of 
5,760 square miles, and a population estimated at nearly 
300,000. Starting from the north these islands are 
Simalur, Banjak, Nias, Batu, the Mentawei Archipelago, 
and Engano. 

On the eastern coast the islands are even more 
numerous, and present more variety of size and group- 
ing. Some are low and of alluvial origin ; the islands of 
Rupat, Padang, and Bengkalis, are already connected 
with the mainland by muddy causeways ; others are of 
granitic formation, more of a volcanic character, and set 
further out at sea, such as the archipelagos of Riouw 
and of Lingga. Yet of these even Banka and Billiton 
show signs of future absorption by alluvial deposits. 



IV. 

The climate of Sumatra, like that of Java, belongs to 
the zone of alternate monsoons : the south-east mon- 
soon, dry and hot, which lasts from May to September, 
and the north-west monsoon, which lasts from November 
to March, and which brings the heavy rains. The pre- 
vailing temperature is as high in the sister island, and 
always very equable, but the atmosphere is extremely 
humid. 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 265 

The storms are most violent and most regular at 
Padang ; they break especially in March and April, and 
always in the afternoon, between 2 and 6 p.m. They 
are also frequent at Palembang, especially from October 
to December, 

The flora of Sumatra resembles that of India in the 
north of the island, and that of Java in the south ; but it 
remains, in its wealth and variety, quite distinct from either. 
The vegetable growths are larger and more undisciplined 
than those of Java. There are flowers of the dimensions 
of the huge Rafflesia, 1 and also immense jungles of alang- 
alang (Imperata arundinacea Cyr.) and of glaga (Saccha- 
rutn spontaneum L.) ; herbaceous plants some 3 or 4 
feet high, which stifle the trees, kill seeds and growing 
crops, and serve only as the haunt of wild beasts. These 
jungles descend as low as 800 feet above sea-level, while 
in Java they grow no lower than 3,000 feet. Here, from 
the economic point of view, is a serious obstacle to the 
development of Java. On the other hand, in addition to 
the usual series of palms, Sumatra possesses a greater 
variety of forest timber than other islands of the 
Archipelago, and produces gums and resins of great 
commercial value. Camphor, rubber, pepper, cinna- 
mon, areca-nut, benzoin, and lacquer are found in 
abundance. 

The wild beasts of Sumatra are plainly differentiated 
from those of Java. In the centre especially, and on the 
north-western coast, the elephant is native ; and the 
rhinoceros, tiger, panther, tapir, and a few orang-outang 
are found. 

The population of Sumatra, although so inferior in 
numbers, has nothing of the ethnographical simplicity, 

1 The largest flower known, discovered by the naturalist, Joseph 
Arnold, in 1818, and named after Sir Stamford Raffles, Lieutenant- 
Governor of Java during the English occupation. He was the author 
of the remarkable History of Java (London, 1817, 2 vols.,4to). The 
blossom of Rafflesia Paima Bl. measures 20 to 24 inches in diameter ; 
that of R. Amoldi R. attains to a diameter of 36 to 40 inches 
Native names : krubut, ambun-ambun : tjendawan matahari. 



266 JAVA 

verging upon unity, which we find in that of Java. It 
is obvious from the first that there are Very perceptible 
points of difference between the peoples of the coast and 
the peoples of the interior ; which is easily explained, as 
the seaboard populations have for centuries come into 
contact with all kinds of foreigners, while those of the 
interior are only beginning to be known. The seaboard 
populations on the east coast of Sumatra, in the Lampong 
districts of Palembang and Djambi, were at an early date 
modified in respect of their physical type and their 
customs by the establishment of Hindu-Javanese 
colonies. The Achinese and Malays are distributed 
in considerable numbers in the north and north-west, 
where they originally settled for purposes of trade, 
and almost Everywhere on these coasts Chinese, Klings, 
or Klingalese, Bengalis, and Arabs, have at some time 
settled, whence have resulted peoples of mixed race, far 
more open to the general life of the East than the tribes 
of the interior. These latter, who have not come into 
contact with foreigners, who are ignorant of the arts of 
learning and commerce, or of European civilisation, or 
indeed of any high civilisation, have in the past been 
slightly influenced by the Hindus, and in certain 
districts have not altogether escaped the influence of 
Islam. They have necessarily remained at a lower intel- 
lectual level than the coast populations ; their condition, 
social, economic, and moral, is still extremely rudi- 
mentary. Yet on the coasts and in the interior the 
population of Sumatra seems to have a common Malayo- 
Polynesian origin ; but diversities of climate and habitat, 
together with different economic and historical condi- 
tions, have evolved from this common parentage races 
very different in aspect and in language, despite their 
real and close relationship. The more important of 
these races are the Lampongs, the Redjongs, the Lebongs, 
the Gayos, the Malays, the Bataks, and the Achinese; the two 
most characteristic being perhaps (for different reasons) 
the Malays and the Bataks. 

The Lampongs inhabit the districts of the same name 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 267 

at the southern extremity of Sumatra, on the Straits of 
Sunda, facing the country of the Sundanese, with whom 
they are in constant touch. Their alphabet proves that 
they were formerly under the influence of the Hindus, 
and attained a fairly high degree of civilisation. They 
live, poorly enough, by agriculture, and in the towns, 
to a certain extent by exchange. Their language seems 
to be related in many ways to the Sundanese, to Batak, 
and to Malay. The Lampongs are almost converted to 
Islam, but they preserve their adat, which is often in 
contradiction to the prescriptions of that religion. The 
Musulman faith is treated with greater respect in the 
coast towns, where marriages are celebrated in the Arab 
fashion, than in the interior. Marriage is an institution 
which in Sumatra affects the most varied forms, and 
therefore affords a good example of the struggle of the 
atavistic concept against the fashions imported by the 
foreigner. It is always exogamic; but while the common 
people regard it as a patriarchal institution, with wife- 
purchase (often ruinous), the woman becoming the 
absolute property of her husband, the wealthy and the 
notables preserve the matriarchal institution, as at 
Menangkabau, where possession of land and of children 
is the attribute of the mother. 

Marriage is greatly honoured among the Lampongs, 
seduction and its results being considered as a disgrace 
to the whole village. It is general among the Lampongs 
for both sexes to file the teeth. 

The Lebongs live upon the upper reaches of the 
Ketuan, in a province bearing their name, and blessed 
with a very healthy climate. The special dialect of the 
Lebongs is strongly mixed with Malay, which language 
they speak in addition to their own. 

Their houses, raised on piles, which are carved and 
decorated in white and red, have walls of bark, and flat 
roofs of split bamboo. Islamism has begun to make 
its way among them, without greatly modifying their 
old animistic superstitions. They are a gentle and 
hospitable people. 



268 JAVA 

The Redjangs, of a much fiercer temper, live in 
Redjang, on the upper course of the Musi ; in them 
Marsden mistakenly saw the type of the primitive 
Malay. Their writing — of Indian origin — has often been 
regarded as the actually unknown script which must 
have been employed by the Malays before Islam brought 
them the Arabic characters. Formerly animists, living 
in a country wherein Hindoo ruins are still discovered, 
and now converted to Islam, the Redjangs practise an 
Islamism full of relics of the past. For example, at 
regular intervals they bear offerings of rice and fruits 
to the crater of Kaba, which they venerate. They 
cultivate tobacco and coffee, and work the best gold- 
and silver-mines in Sumatra. 

The Korintjis, who inhabit the country surrounding 
Indrapura, and are reinforced by the Malays of 
Menangkabau, form a smaller group than the Redjangs ; 
but they are even more warlike than the latter, 
and far more difficult to handle. The majority are 
Musulmans by name, but animists in fact. 

The Orang-Ulu and the Orang-Lubu of Mount Ophir 
are savages ; near relatives of the Batiks ; peaceable 
and extremely poor. 

The Malays of the seaboard and the Malays of 
Menangkabau 1 represent the pure Malay element in 
Java. The Malays of the seaboard closely resemble 
those of Malacca and of Riouw-Lingga ; they live 
chiefly in the country of Palembang, the centre of the 
trading highways of the island. 

The Malays of Menangkabau (Dutch, Menangkabau 
Maleiers) regard themselves as the primitive Malays. 
It is more probable that they are a detached branch of 
the Malays of the coast, which has been isolated for 
ages in the interior of the country, and has developed 
in perfect independence. The kingdom of Menang- 
kabau, says the native legend, arose upon the ruins of 

2 A kingdom now extinct. It was situated between the kingdom 
of Palembang and the Siak River on the east ; between the kingdom 
of Mendjuto and the Singkel River on the west. 




. 



MALAYS OF MENANGKABAU, KOTA GEDANG. 



To face p. 26? 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 269 

the Hindu empire of Adityavarman, and its name, 
" Victory of the Buffalo/' symbolised the supremacy 
of Sumatra and the Malays over Java, which they are 
supposed for a time to have conquered. Early con- 
verted to Islam while preserving their own adat, the 
Malays of Menangkabau regard themselves as the best 
Mahomedans in the Archipelago. 

Marriage with them is always exogamic, and has 
retained the matriarchal form. The husband cultivates 
the soil for the wife, who owns it as she owns her 
children ; the property of the father passes to the 
children of his sister, not to those of his wife or 
brother. 

It is true that contemporary observers represent the 
Malay of Menangkabau as possessing but little conjugal 
fidelity ; as anything but a sentimental father ; as 
defiant, a born intriguer, avaricious, harsh to his inferiors, 
servile to his superiors, inhospitable and hostile to 
the foreigner ; a babbler, indifferent to cleanliness, an 
intemperate drinker and eater, and a desperate smoker 
and betel-chewer. There is light, however, in this 
gloomy picture. It must be admitted that the Malay 
of Menangkabau is industrious, full of endurance, 
an excellent workman, an experienced trader, and an 
excellent farmer. He has not, like the Javanese, a 
burning desire to educate himself or to improve his 
position ; yet when he does decide to study he does 
so with the most zealous tenacity. He has a keen 
artistic sense and skilful fingers, and executes charming 
work in glass, filigree, and copper, and is a fine 
sculptor in wood and sometimes in precious metals. 
The women share in these gifts, for the kains, the cloth 
of gold of Ugam, the rich stuffs of Si Lungkang and 
Simgei Pagou, are greatly valued. They also undertake 
the milling of sugar-cane and make pottery, but the 
men only work in the mines, are carpenters and cabinet- 
makers, build praus, and work in copper and wood. 

The Malays of Menangkabau are all Mahomedans, 
but they are scarcely more zealous than the Javanese : 



270 JAVA 

yet on occasion their distrustful minds will bring a 
dangerous enthusiasm to bear upon the question of 
religion. It was among them that the famous Padris 1 
arose : a sect of reformers, who, in 1820 or thereabouts, 
in the hope of leading their compatriots back to a 
stricter observance of the ritual of their faith, rebelled 
against the Sultan of Menangkabau, who was at the 
same time priest and king. The latter, despairing of 
victory, appealed for assistance to the Dutch, who after 
a sanguinary war of nine years' duration exterminated 
the Padris, but subdued Menangkabau. 

From the social point of view the Malays of Menang- 
kabau are organised into sukus, or clans, the chosen chief 
of which, who is selected from a privileged family, is 
always assisted by a council composed of the adult males 
of the clan. Several sukus form a district, which has for 
its council the chiefs of the sukus composing it. The 
district, according to the number of the kotas, or villages, 
is known as a " district of 20 or 30 kotas! 1 

The Bataks are the Malays of the western branch, who 
inhabit the Residency of Tapanuli in the south of Atjeh, a 
large part of the eastern coast of Sumatra, and portions of 
the neighbouring islands which are external to the Dutch 
empire properly so called. According to the differences 
in their dialects, the Bataks are divided into three principal 
groups : the Tobas of Siboga, Baros, and Sorkam ; the 
Mandailings of the west coast of Sumatra ; and the Dairis 
of the north and north-west of Baros and the centre of 
Singkel. To these groups others are related : the Timor- 
Bataks, the Raja-Bataks, and the Pakpak Bataks of the 
Sea of Toba : the Karo-Bataks and the Dusun-Bataks of 
the high plains and the east coast of Sumatra. 

Any real knowledge of the Bataks dates from 1867- 

1 From the Portuguese padre, in the religious sense of father. 
Passed into the Malay tongue as padri y this word has come to mean 
priest or ecclesiastic. The leaders of the Padris' rebellion, who 
were all members of the Islamite clergy, were at first the sole 
bearers of this title ; but later on it enlarged its meaning, and 
signified the adepts of the sect as a whole. 




DWELLING-HOUSE AND RICE GRANARY, BATIPU, SUMATRA. 



To face p. 270. 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 271 

1883 ; " they had at first a terrible reputation for can- 
nibalism, due principally to the reports of ancient Arab 
travellers; they accused them of eating their aged 
relations so soon as the latter were no longer of service 
to them ; in order to give them a pious sepulture in their 
stomachs. At the season when lemons (the indispensable 
accompaniment of such a festival) were ripe, the aged 
victim would climb a tree ; the family would dance 
around below, singing " Where the fruit is ripe it falls 
from the tree " ; until the victim allowed himself to fall, 
when he was knocked on the head, cut up, and consumed 
according to custom. 2 The Bataks were also accused of 
eating their prisoners of war, men of the people who 

1 See M. Joustra, Litter atuur over zicht der Bataklanden (Leyden, 
1907, 8vo). A Batak Institute was founded in Leyden in 1909 for 
the purpose of co-ordinating and encouraging the study of the 
Batak peoples. 

a It is usually considered that the victim of anthropophagy must 
be unwilling. We may take this unwillingness for granted in the 
case of shipwrecked strangers, prisoners of war, and missionaries 
not of the stuff of martyrs ; but in such cases as the above (which 
if not true of the Bataks is true of many cannibals) it is more than 
probable that the moribund would object to any other end. Indeed, 
it is not difficult to understand that the rite might have originated 
not with the eaters, but with the eaten. It is conceivable that a 
savage who had lived a full and warlike life would regard with 
abhorrence the dispersal of his remains by decay, which in an 
early stage of animism would by some be regarded as annihila- 
tion. Consumption by the family, on the other hand, might well be 
accompanied by a conception of immortality. The old, helpless 
man, with the joys of life failing him, would find a certain attraction 
in the idea that his body would become part of the strong brown 
bodies around him. He might even have a dim conception that he 
would be partly conscious in each of his sepultures : an idea by no 
means far-fetched, but borne out by the fact that the old were eaten 
to partake of their wisdom, and fallen warriors to partake of their 
strength. Chance shipwrecked mariners were doubtless disposed 
of with the thrifty idea of saving any virtues they might possess. 
In Africa, if a crocodile eats a man, the crocodile is afterwards 
regarded as the deceased ; if the deceased were ill-tempered the 
crocodile is greatly feared. Cannibalism may become degraded 
and hypocritical, but must not in itself be regarded as a proof of 
low civilisation. — [Trans.] 



272 JAVA 

committed adultery with the wife of a chief, foreigners 
and strangers suspected of hostile intentions, &c. The 
Bataks, who to-day are Christians or Islamites, deny these 
practices with indignation, or refer them to a period very 
remote ; and it seems established, by the study of selected 
cases, that the Bataks were not actually cannibals, but 
that they practised ritual killing and the symbolic 
consumption of the victim's flesh. 

Out of 500,000 Bataks about 125,000 are Mahomedans, 
although the propaganda of Islam followed rather than 
preceded that of Christianity. They number 80,000 
Christians ; the remainder are animistic pagans, whose 
beliefs are modified by very vague memories of 
Hinduism. These latter are susceptible to Christian 
influences : a fact which has greatly facilitated the 
access and the domination of the Dutch. Their char- 
acter is peaceable and easy : they are farmers and breeders 
of cattle, and terminate the labour of the rice-fields by 
collective banquets, at which many buffalo are con- 
sumed, with kids and even pigs for the Christians. 
Whatever religious label the Batak assumes, he is a 
superstitious person rather than a believer ; the Islamism 
of the Bataks, wherever it is professed, is limited to 
circumcision, which rite is also practised by the pagan 
Karo-Bataks ; abstention from strong drink, and from 
the flesh of the pig ; the veneration of Hadjis and santris, 
and the erection in almost every village of a very 
countrified-looking mosque. In everything else the 
village adat comes first. The practice of filing the 
teeth is general : marriage affects the partriarchal or 
the matriarchal form according to the village in question 
or the rank of those concerned. 

The houses of the Bataks are of a neat rustic type, 
their graceful roofs recalling those of the Bahnars of 
French Indo-China, as does their great communal house, 
where they receive friendly strangers and keep their most 
valued possessions, which are generally of a fetishistic 
nature. 

A few manuscripts upon wood or palm-leaves, traced 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 273 

in an alphabet of Hindu origin, prove that the Bataks 
once knew a civilisation more advanced than that they 
enjoy to-day. 1 

The Gayos, thanks to the masterly study by Dr. 
Snouck Hurgronje, professor at the University of 
Leyden, are better known than the Bataks. The 
country of the Gayos is situated on the western coast 
of Sumatra, between the Straits of Malacca and the 
Indian Ocean, but does not at any point touch the sea ; 
it is isolated by a long belt of Achinese territory which 
with the Alas and Tannang provinces completely sur- 
rounds it, except upon the south-eastern frontier. In 
spite of some differences of type and dialect, which vary 
with their habitat, the Gayos present a real chrono- 
graphical unity, and a rudimentary civilisation slightly 
superior to that of the Bahnars and the Stiengs of French 
Indo-China, and on about the same level as that of the 
Chams of the same country. 

The principal event of the religious life of the Gayos, 
who are all Islamites, is the rite of circumcision, which is 
practised by an accredited operator towards the eighth 
or tenth year. They also celebrate the mulud, or festival 
of the Nativity of Mahomet. In the large villages the 
fast of Ramadhan is better observed than in Java. Even 
the opium-smokers abstain for a few days. In the 
smaller villages the feast which closes the fast is the 
principal affair. 

The Gayo contrives to mingle the family adat with the 
influence of the Koran. Both sexes file the teeth. 
Marriage is patriarchal compared with the marriage of 
the Malays of Menangkabau. The woman can only leave 
her village for the pilgrimage to Mecca, which a woman 
scarcely ever makes ; the family is perpetuated through 
the males, and in default of a son the Gayo will often 
adopt his son-in-law, or a stranger, who is nearly always 
an Achinese, a Malay, more rarely an Arab, a Malabarese 

x The Bataks have special languages for women, thieves, and 
sorcerers, and a " language of leaves" : the latter for the use of 
fiances* 

19 



274 JAVA 

or a Chinese ; but he is always adopted upon the con- 
dition that he becomes a Musulman. The funerals are 
according to the Musulman rite, excepting certain super- 
stitious practices, such as removing the corpse by a 
special opening, instead of by the habitual stairs or 
ladder. 

The Gayos enforce the excellently moral custom of 
causing all the boys and young men to sleep in the 
common house up to the time of their marriage. Like 
all the Indonesians, they have retained a superstitious 
belief in good and evil spirits, and seek to conciliate 
them by means of oblations and prayers which are 
repudiated by the orthodox Mahomedan. 

The Gayos accompany all their festivals with kunduris, 
or banquets, to which a religious colour is given by the 
recitation before meat of passages from the Koran, and 
the presence of men of piety ; so that these banquets 
remind one strongly of the slamettans of Java. 1 

The Achinese inhabit the kingdom of Acheen in the 
north of Sumatra (582,175 inhabitants, of whom 761 are 
Europeans, 875 Chinese, 1,261 Oriental foreigners, and 
101 Arabs), which they reckon as bounded on the east by 
Tamiang and the west by Baros. 2 The territory, which 
will soon go the way of that of the Sultans of Menang- 
kabau, comprises a stretch of country in the north which 
the Achinese regard as Acheen or Atjeh proper, and 
which the Dutch have called Great Atjeh (Groot Atjeh). 
This portion is shaped precisely like a fan, the mouth of 
the river Atjeh marking the point of the fan, where the 
impurities of the rice-fields collect. It comprises, to the 
left, the Twenty-five Mukims ; 3 to the right are the 
Twenty-six Mukims ; the Twenty-two Mukims occupy- 

1 See C. Snouck Hurgronje, Met Gajolund en zijne bewohnen 
(Batavia 1903, 8vo illustr.). 

2 Other names of Acheen are : Atjeh, Acheh, Atcheh, Achin, 
Acheen, Achem, &c. 

3 The mukim (Dutch form moekim ; an Arab word) is a territorial 
subdivision under the authority of an imaum, and corresponds more 
01 less to the English parish. 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 275 

ing the wide belt of borderland. These three confedera- 
tions have received the name of the "Three Angles of 
Atjeh," and the chiefs who preside over them are the 
" Heads of Atjeh." 

The Achinese also have been the object of a lengthy 
study by Professor Hurgronje, whose profound under- 
standing of Islam and the Islamitish Insulindian nations 
has enabled him to write a work containing most impor- 
tant information, whose conclusions have more than 
once been a guide to Holland in her interminable 
struggle with the Achinese. 1 

The Achinese claim to be of Hindu origin. It is 
eminently probable that they were converted to Islam by 
the Hindus, and that their race has received additions of 
Dravidian, Malay, Bugis, Arab, and even Egyptian 
origin. The kingdom of Acheen boasts of its foundation 
in the thirteenth century by a Sultan descended in the 
direct line, as are almost all the Malay princes, from 
Iskander or Alexander the Great. It is certain that at the 
beginning of the seventeenth century the Sultan ruled 
over half Sumatra and the small neighbouring islands ; 
that he had permanent relations with Turkey and China, 
Egypt and Japan ; but in the eighteenth century the 
kingdom declined. We can understand that with such 
memories as these, and a somewhat bellicose tempera- 
ment, the Achinese, although now deprived of nine- 
tenths of their ancient territory, have but unwillingly 
accepted the Dutch rule, against which they have been 
desperately struggling since 1883, even though all the 
towns and important strategic points of their country — 
Sigli, Edi, Kota Radja, Oleh-Leh and Sabang, are occupied 
by the Dutch soldiery. 

The Achinese, accordingly as they live in the moun- 
tains under the name of Orang-tunong, or in the plain 
under the name of Orang-baroh y exhibit characteristic 
differences. The former are the more warlike and are 
frequently fanatical ; they hate the foreigner, are incor- 

1 Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, The Achehnese (Leyden, 1906, 
2 vols. 4to). 



276 JAVA 

rigible brigands, and think nothing of robbery or murder ; 
the people of the plain, of a more peaceable nature, and 
accustomed to international relations, have in an exag- 
gerated degree, it is said, the usual faults of the Malays : 
treacherous flattery, servility, intemperance, the abuse of 
opium and of strong liquors. 

Among the Achinese, as among nearly all the 
Mahomedan Sumatrese, we find the coexistence of the 
power of the adat and of the religious law. 

The woman is married very young, at eight or ten 
years of age, the boy being from sixteen to twenty. The 
marriage is arranged by go-betweens, and is of the 
patriarchal type, the woman receiving a betrothal present 
as well as her parents. The ceremony is celebrated 
after the Arab fashion, in spite of various additions which 
have no relation to Islam. The husband works for a 
certain period with his parents-in-law, in order to com- 
pensate them for the loss he is causing them ; the 
marriage contract also stipulates that the husband cannot 
separate the wife from her parents without her consent. 

A nuptial gift to the wife, after the consummation of 
the marriage, is obligatory ; according to the wealth of 
the husband it may be of gold and silver, and consist of 
a necklace or a bracelet. 

It should be noted that the chief of the kampong has 
the right to oppose any marriage that may appear to him 
contrary to the peace or security of the tribe ; it is he 
who fixes the most favourable day and hour for the 
wedding. 

The maiden of good family marries only among her 
equals ; never a foreigner, unless an Arab, a Malabarese, 
or a Komitji, wealthy and well versed in sacred things. 
Other applicants can only obtain the descendants of 
slaves. The Achinese are Musulmans, often fanatical 
towards foreigners, but nearly always lukewarm in the 
practice of their religion. They do not, of course, omit 
circumcision, but their women are not veiled, any more 
than are the women of Gayos, Bataks, or the Malays. 
They celebrate the mulud, which is perhaps their 





a 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 277 

greatest festival ; and also the closing feast of Ramadhan, 
but very few strictly observe the prescribed fast. Many 
content themselves with fasting three times a month — at 
the beginning, in the middle, and at the end — and very 
few abstain from smoking tobacco during the period of 
penitence. To the Achinese, as to the Gayos, the Malays, 
and the Javanese, the religious festivals are excellent 
occasions for banquets, which are known in Acheen 
as kanduris. They are opened by a prayer, or the 
recitation of passages from the Koran ; and consist of 
dishes of a determined quantity and quality. The most 
solemn of these kanduris is that of the mulud ; but the 
Achinese hold banquets upon all excusable occasions. 
Recovery from illness, or falling sick ; sending a son to 
school ; returning from a voyage ; the success of a 
stroke of business ; the threat of an enemy ; a bad 
dream ; all such trifling events may be so celebrated. 

The islands which cluster about Sumatra are peopled 
by various races, according to their geographical position. 
The northern islands in particular have been peopled 
by emigrants from Menangkabau and Acheen ; but Bang- 
kan remains deserted, because it is supposed to be the 
refuge of evil spirits. 

The Niassais, inhabitants of the Nias Islands, are 
Malayo-Polynesian by race, and number some 240,000. 
They live sociably in villages ; they are gay, and hospitable 
of aspect, but their moral standard cannot be called high. 
They are born thieves, hypocritical, cowardly, and cruel, 
and are constantly waging war between village and village, 
between family and family, and carrying on interminable 
vendettas. 

Farmers and fishermen, they live on rice, maize, sago, 
and coco-nuts, to which they add, at their banquets, 
fowls and pork and large quantities of palm wine. They 
are inordinately fond of dress and ornament ; the cere- 
monial costume of a chief is often worth ^240 to ^320, 
and that of his wife nearly half as much. They do not 
dice, neither do they smoke opium. 

Good craftsmen, they weave, dye, and colour stuffe and 



278 JAVA 

matting, work in copper, make arms, and build fairly 
presentable houses, which are, however, exceedingly 
filthy inside. The interior of the house is often decorated 
with the tusks of boars, or even with human skulls. 
Their women, who are well built, are greatly sought 
by the Malays. 

The religion of the Niassais is a rudimentary animism, 
fearful above all of evil spirits, or badjus, and of Nadaya 
their chief. These spirits are propitiated through the 
priests and priestesses, who form a special but not a 
privileged class. 

Extremely superstitious, the Niassais fear and maltreat 
albino children, although the latter are very numerous ; 
twins they kill, and the funerals of chiefs are often accom- 
panied by human sacrifices. Each house has its house- 
hold god, in the shape of a puppet carved in wood ; in 
this the souls of the ancestors of the household are incar- 
nate, and it also protects the hearth. The Niassais never 
move without taking their idols with them ; they also 
honour the phallus carved in wood, and the village has its 
protecting deity, with his wife. These, which are also of 
wood, are placed at the entrance to the village so that 
they may watch over its safety. 

Although the family is so poorly constituted among the 
Niassais, adultery and seduction are punished by death. 

The Niassais are now beginning to emigrate to 
Sumatra, in order to make money as carpenters, masons, 
labourers, &c. 

The islands of the volcanic archipelago of Mentawei are 
inhabited by a population of about twelve thousand 
persons, who in many points resemble, according to 
Rosenberg, who spent six months among them, the 
natives of the Marquesas Islands of Hawaii, a fine- 
looking, gentle race, their code of morality is very 
inflexible ; they know nothing of divorce, and punish 
adultery by death. Men and women have the whole 
body tattooed in childhood ; they deck the head and the 
ears with flowers in the Polynesian fashion. Their reli- 
gion consists chiefly in a fear of the evil spirits that 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 279 

people the universe, and also the souls of the dead ; but 
they do not offer them sacrifices of any notable value. 
They have neither temples nor figures of the gods ; they 
make their rare oblations in a special corner of the forest 
Certain meals are forbidden to the women. They live by 
hunting and fishing, and, to a certain extent, by agriculture. 

The group of islands which the Portuguese called the 
Engano, or Deceitful Islands (engano signifying "de- 
ception," "illusion"), consists of one principal island, 
Keifu Kaikukka or Eloppo, and six small islands, all of 
which are surrounded by dangerous reefs. This little 
archipelago is of no economic importance, and is only 
occasionally visited by the Dutch officials. The inhabi- 
tants, who are tall and of a bronze-coloured complexion, 
are accustomed to go naked, hence the name of Pulu 
Telandjung, meaning " Island of the Naked," which the 
Malays have given their group of islands. They practise 
a primitive animism. Their numbers are steadily de- 
creasing : they were 3,000 in 1862, and only 692 in 1893 ; 
to-day there are scarcely 600. The Engano Islands are 
under the administration of the Resident of Bencoolen. 

The islands of the east coast of Sumatra are much 
larger and of much greater geographical and economic 
importance than those of the west coast. They include 
the archipelago of Riouw Lingga, with the small islands 
lying between Borneo and that archipelago, of which 
they really form outlying fragments. Further to the 
south of Sumatra are the two large islands of Bank and 
Billiton. 

The archipelago of Riouw Lingga, to the south of the 
Malay Peninsula, is a granitic prolongation of the latter : 
although the alluvial deposits of the rivers of Sumatra are 
tending to unite it with the mainland. Although its total 
area is greatly superior to that of Singapore, its population 
in 1909 amounted only to 112,216, of whom 221 were 
Europeans and 18,491 Chinese. 

The archipelago of Riouw Lingga is composed of two 
groups of islands : the archipelago of Riouw and Lingga, 
properly so-called, and the Pulu Tudjuh islands. 



280 JAVA 

The archipelago of Riouw Lingga consists of some 
hundreds of little islands, which have been divided into 
five subsidiary groups : the Karimon, Batam, Bintang, 
Lingga, and Singkep groups. All these islands are 
granitic and covered with undulating hills, of which the 
highest, the peak of Lingga, rises only 4,400 feet above sea- 
level. The island of Lingga also contains the largest 
alluvial plain in the archipelago. 

Singkep, mountainous to the north-west, is full of 
swamps about the centre. 

The rivers on islands so limited in size, are necessarily 
insignificant. The climate of the archipelago is almost 
everywhere excellent, the heat being tempered by the 
abundant rains, by the ocean currents, and the surround- 
ing sea. Almost the entire archipelago is covered with a 
luxuriant vegetation ; teak, trees secreting various gums 
and resins, palms of many varieties, anana and banana- 
trees, sugar-cane, all grow readily and without attention. 

The fauna, as varied as the flora, and able to hold its 
own with that of Java or Sumatra, has one appreciable 
virtue : it contains no dangerous carnivorae. 

The natives, known as the Orang Benua, who are poor 
and peaceable, are of Malay origin ; their race being a 
mixture of pure Malays, Bugis, and Chinese. 

The landscape of the archipelago, with its bold con- 
tours, its luxurious vegetation, and the play of the sunlight 
upon the all-encompassing sea, is the admiration of all 
travellers privileged to behold it. 

The Pulu Tudjuh group, which includes more than 
three hundred islands, large and small, lies to the south of 
the China Sea, between the Malay Peninsula and Borneo. 
It has been divided into seven sub-groups, the Anambas 
counting as two ; the Natunas as three ; the Ilanung or 
Lanung (isles of the pirates or Lanons, in Dutch the 
Zeerovers-Eilanderi) as one, and the Tambelans as one. 

The Natuna Isles number fifty-five at least, and are 
mostly of granite formation. The largest, Bunguran, 
contains a thousand inhabitants : Orang Laut, Malays, 
and Chinese, who live by their fisheries, and their coco* 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 281 

palms. The others contain only fourteen hundred souls 
altogether, who are still more poverty-stricken than the 
folk of Bunguran. 

The ninety-six little islands, wooded and mountainous, 
which form the Anamba group, are peopled by some 
four thousand inhabitants : Mahomedan Malays or pagan 
Orang Laut. They cultivate the sago-palm and the coco- 
nut ; they fish, build praus, and export a little building 
timber to Singapore. 

The forty rocky islands of Tambelan support about 
a thousand inhabitants between them. These are 
nearly all Malays, who live by fishing, the culture of the 
coco-palm, and the sale of swallows' nests. 

Banka, or Bangka, and Billiton are far their superior in 
area and in economic value, and each forms a separate 
administrative division. 

Banka, a granite outcrop detached from the Malay 
Peninsula, is situated off the east coast of Sumatra, from 
which it is separated by the Strait of Banka. A moun- 
tainous island, with an area of 4,460 square miles. The 
highest point, Mount Maras, is only some 2,000 feet 
in height. The island slopes towards the east to a sandy 
seaboard ; on the west is a shore of swamps. 

Its rivers are numerous and abundant, though short. 
The two largest are the Sungei Selan, which is 18 miles 
in length, and the Djerin, on the west, whose outlet is 
more than 1,000 yards in width. 

The climate of Banka, like that of Billiton, is extremely 
hot, but is tempered by the proximity of the sea. It is 
also very variable, reaching ioo° Fahr. in the shade on 
the plains, while in the higher altitudes it may fall as 
low as 39 or 41 during the night. 

Banka is verdant with a vegetation resembling that of 
the Malay Peninsula ; its fauna, which partakes of that of 
Sumatra and that of the Peninsula, includes no carnivora 
excepting the little brown Malay bear (Ursus malayanus 
Raffl.) ; but serpents and crocodiles are by no means 
unknown. 

Its inhabitants, to the number of 115,190, of whom 



282 JAVA 

43,720 are Chinese, 317 Europeans, and 261 Arabs, are 
— we are speaking of the natives — descendants of the 
Malays of Palembang. They live in a semi-savage con- 
dition, by their groves of coco-palms, areca-nut trees, 
areng-palms, bananas, and their potatoes ; and to some 
extent by fishing and the chase. Poor and ignorant, they 
hold aloof from the foreigners who visit their island 
to exploit the abundant mineral wealth beneath its surface, 
and who set them the example not only of a healthy 
activity, but also, in most cases — and this is true especially 
of the Chinese miners — that of a host of repulsive vices. 

Billiton, or Blitung, to the south-west of Banka, has 
an area of 1,860 square miles, and a population of 36,860, 
of whom 2,520 are Chinese, 136 Europeans, and 16 Arabs. 

In its physical aspect and geological constitution it 
resembles Banka. Its highest point, the hill known as 
Tadjam, is only some 1,600 feet above sea-level. It is 
watered by a number of short streams ; at the mouth of one 
of these, the Tjarutjup, in the east of Billiton, is built the 
chief town and capital of the island, Tandjong Pandang. 

As in Banka, the natives do not work in the mines. 
They cultivate a few fields and the more valuable kinds 
of palms ; they also weave mats and make vessels, &c, 
of pewter. They export a little copra, also baskets, 
rattan, gums, and resins, wood for furniture, and tortoise- 
shell. 

VI. 

The languages and dialects of Sumatra are as numerous 
as the races of its inhabitants, despite the visible relation- 
ship of both. The principal languages are the Malay 
of Menangkabau, Batak, Achinese, Lampong, Redjang, 
Lebong, &c. Malay, the usual language of the whole of 
the east coast, excepting the two extremities of the coast, 
of the archipelago of Riouw Lingga, of Banka, Billiton, 
and the greater part of the west coast, is also understood 
and spoken by all the other peoples of Sumatra ; it serves 
as the language of trade and inter-tribal communication 
in all parts of the island. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITION OF 
SUMATRA AND THE ARCHIPELAGO OF RIOUW LINGGA 

I. The Dutch have been hampered by certain European Powers 
and certain of the races of Sumatra in their endeavour to 
establish the power of Holland in Sumatra. — II. The present 
administrative divisions of Sumatra. — The principal towns and 
their future. — III. Economic value of Sumatra : the wealth of 
its natural resources. — IV. How far the natives have exploited 
the natural resources. — V. How far the Europeans have done 
so : the mines. — VI. Coffee and tobacco ; spices. — VII. The 
means of communication with Sumatra : railways, packet-boats. 
— The means of communication must be greatly enlarged before 
the island can be pacified and its wealth developed. 



I. 

Sumatra, 1 it seems, has only been known to the 
Europeans since the sixteenth century ; long after the 
Hindus, and later on the Arabs, had brought their beliefs 
and their civilisations. The imprint of the Hindus remains 
especially visible in the east and south of the island ; and 
that of the Arabs in the north and along the eastern 
coast. Ludovico di Varthema, 2 the first of the Europeans, 
is said to have discovered the coast of Sumatra in 1505. 
He was followed by the Portuguese in 1509, and in 1599 
by the Dutch, who landed on the coast of Achin. Here 
Cornelius Houtman, one of those who " discovered " for 

1 Other names of Sumatra : Malayu, Java Minor, Al-Ramni, 
Samara, Sumadra, Shamudra, Shamuthera, Soumatra, Andelas, Pulo 
Pert j a, Liman, &c. 

2 See Les voyages de Ludovico di Varthema ou le Viateur de la plus 
grandefartie de I'QrienL Published by Ch. Scheffer (Paris, 1890, 8vo.), 

283 



284 JAVA 

Holland the route to the Indies, was killed by the 
Achinese (1599), who began, over the body of the repre- 
sentative of the power of Holland in the East, their 
interminable struggle against that Power. Having 
gradually won a footing upon various points of the 
Sumatrese coast, and having expelled their predecessors, 
the Portuguese, the Dutch were compelled throughout 
the whole of the eighteenth century to struggle against 
the rivalry of England. Only in 1814 did England 
renounce her claim to Banka in return for the cession of 
Cochin and its dependencies on the Malabar coast ; and in 
1824, by the Treaty of London (confirmed and amplified 
in 1871) she abandoned all claims to Billiton and the 
whole of Sumatra, in return for all the remaining Dutch 
possessions on the Indian coast and the Malayan 
Peninsula, together with the island of Singapore. 

Her European rivals being thus disposed of, Holland 
set herself the arduous task of rendering her domination 
actual instead of nominal, as it was at the beginning of 
the nineteenth century. The size and configuration of 
the island, and the independent spirit of its peoples, have 
made the task a matter of interminable patience in which 
diplomacy has more than once been forced to fall back 
upon the force of arms. 

The country of the Lampongs, formerly under the 
suzerainty of the Sultans of Bantam (Bantan, Banten), 
was in 1808 annexed by Daendels, after an expedition 
against Bantam itself. Since then, with the exception of 
a formidable rebellion in 1850, the country has been 
quiet. The territories of the Redjangs and the Lebongs, 
who were recognised vassals of Holland, shortly after- 
wards made a show of hostility, and murdered some 
European agents, with the result that they were incor- 
porated as part of the Dutch domain in 1858. 

The wealthier and more desirable eastern coast was 
acquired with far greater difficulty. At the beginning of 
its power the East Indian Company sought by various 
means to gain a modest footing in order that it might 
extend its trade ; then, profiting by the constant quarrels 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 285 

of all the reigning princes, and by offering its aid first to 
one and then to another, it gradually contrived to subject 
them, or, if need were, to suppress them altogether. 
Wherever it was possible without endangering their 
domination to maintain the ancient institutions of the 
country they established them by law. The shadow of a 
Sultan, generously pensioned, but without any initiation, 
has in more than one case proved to be a diplomatic 
instrument of authority over these obscure and fanatical 
races. Thus the Sultans of Djambi and Deli were 
retained upon their thrones. 

The powerful kingdom of Palembang was one of the 
first which the Dutch sought to enter, on account of its 
enormous production of pepper. In 1617 the East 
Indian Company obtained access to the Sultan ; and in 
1620 the foundation of a modest settlement enabled it 
to drain the country of pepper for the benefit of Batavia. 
In 1654 violent hostilities broke out against the Dutch, 
who were forced to leave the country : they returned in 
force and captured Palembang. In 1659 the Sultan was 
forced to grant them the monopoly of pepper, and per- 
mission to build a fort upon the Musi. In 1819 another 
rebellion again ended in the expulsion of the Dutch. 
One of the principal causes of this misunderstanding 
was the fact that the two rival Powers were disputing for 
the possession of Banka and Billiton and their rich tin- 
mines, of which the Sultan of Palembang was the pre- 
tended sovereign ; but in reality the prince of the islands 
in question had in 1668 placed himself under the pro- 
tection of the Dutch East Indian Company, which fact 
enabled the Dutch Government to establish itself on the 
two islands. An expedition led by De Kock in 1821 
against Palembang subdued the latter. In 1825 the city 
attempted to rebel, and was again taken ; in 1849 a 
Resident was installed there. In 1864 it was judged ripe 
for European government ; and save for a rebellion 
fomented by fanatical Mahomedans in 1881, the city and 
the whole country are perfectly tranquil, and to-day 
seem contented with their lot. 



286 JAVA 



The Sultanate of Djambi showed itself even more anti 
foreign than Palembang ; with the result that the Dutch, 
unwilling to see their compatriots who went thither to 
trade assassinated, broke off all relations with the Sultan. 
In 1833, however, a Sultan of Djambi requested the 
Dutch to help him against the pirates. By means of 
their assistance he was victorious ; but in return the 
Dutch established a small garrison in his capital, and 
he was obliged to grant the right of free trade and the 
monopoly of salt. In 1858, these concessions being 
revoked by a new Sultan, an expedition seized his 
kraton, drove him away, and replaced him by one of his 
uncles, who was of a more accommodating tempera- 
ment. The latter recognised the suzerainty of Holland, 
which appointed a " political agent " in permanent resi- 
dence at his court. In 1868, 1878, and 1881 serious 
difficulties arose, and ended in the more definite mastery 
of the Dutch Government, which compensated the Sultan 
for his decreased authority by an increased pension. 
The assassination of three Europeans by two Hadjis, in 
1883, several outbreaks of discontented natives, which 
met with the approbation of the Sultan, in 1886, 1888, 
and again in 1895, have reduced the power of the Sultan 
to a vain appearance. Every three months he is obliged 
to present himself before the political agent, and, 
although his movements are unrestricted, they are none 
the less carefully watched. All monopolies are retained 
by Holland, as well as the effective exercise of power. 

Holland having, in 1824, annexed the archipelago of 
Riouw Lingga, in order to expel a non-Malay Sultan who 
was protected by the English, the Resident of Riouw, in 
1872, profited by that fact in claiming, in the name of 
the Sultans whom his predecessors had replaced, the 
suzerainty of the kingdom of Siak, on the east coast of 
Sumatra, it being at that date in a weak and unstable 
condition. 

The subjection of the Sultanate of Deli, further to 
the north, was a matter of more difficulty ; but in 1854 
the Sultan, who had succeeded at one stroke in emanci- 



, 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 287 

pating himself from the princes of Siak and Achin, 
demanded aid from Holland against renewed preten- 
sions on the part of the Achinese. In 1858 he became 
the vassal of the Dutch Government ; in 1872 there was 
a brief rebellion, and in 1876 Deli was taken over by the 
government of the east coast of Sumatra, although the 
Sultan is retained upon the throne. 

As for the west coast, upon the withdrawal of the 
English the Dutch found themselves masters of only a 
narrow belt of territory, with Bencoolen as its capital. 
The wealthy interior, the Highlands of Pandang, re- 
mained closed to them, as did the mysterious kingdom 
of Menangkabau, the centre of the Malay power, the 
Maharajah of which boasted, in his letters, that his 
authority extended from China to Turkey. 

In 1821 this Maharajah, or emperor, who was also the 
high priest, the supreme pontiff of his country, begged 
the assistance of the Government at Batavia against 
certain of his subjects, the fanatical Mahomedans known 
as the Padris, of whom we have already spoken, who 
wished, in the name of the Koran, to abolish the adat, 
and everything in the social and political organism that 
was not in conformity with Islam. They also protested 
against the abuse of tobacco, opium, and alcohol, and 
manifested their reforming zeal with arms in their hands. 

Holland was forced to light against the Padris for 
seventeen years. Once victorious (1838), she wished to 
annex the territory conquered ; no easy matter, since the 
sovereign of Menangkabau was accustomed to the vene- 
ration of his subjects, but not to their obedience ; and a 
whole system of feudatory princes who nominally owed 
him obedience took independent action and opposed the 
power of Holland. Only in 1899 was the kingdom of 
Menangkabau annexed to the Dutch domain and effec- 
tually pacified. 

In the case of the Batak territory, the influence of the 
missionaries from 1883 onwards greatly facilitated the 
establishment of the Dutch power. 

It was the conquest of the northern portion of Sumatra 



288 JAVA 

— the kingdom of Acheen — that gave Holland the greatest 
trouble. As early as 1509 the Portuguese had endea- 
voured to enter into relations with the Sultan of Atjeh ; 
in 1601 the Dutch in turn had obtained his permission 
to establish a factory ; but in a revulsion of feeling 
common enough in these savage and arrogant monarchs, 
they were expelled in 1616, and the kingdom remained 
hostile throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
turies. In 1816, under the English domination, Raffles 
avenged the Europeans : he deposed the Sultan and 
enforced a treaty of commerce. After the withdrawal 
of England the Dutch, in 1827, again attempted to form 
relations with Acheen ; in 1857, after endless trouble, they 
succeeded in obtaining a commercial treaty. The aver- 
sion inspired by Holland increasing with her power in 
Sumatra, she decided, in 1873, to make war upon Acheen. 
This was an interminable campaign : a guerilla war ; an 
affair of ambuscades and surprises, in a country imper- 
fectly known, interspersed with brief and ineffectual 
truces or remissions : a war which has already, it is 
estimated, on one side or the other, cost more than 
200,000 lives, and which has certainly cost Holland 
nearly .£40,000,000. Although the neighbouring coun- 
tries of the Gayos and the Alas were annexed 
in 1904, and all the important towns and strate- 
gical points of the kingdom are now in the hands of 
the Dutch, the war still continues; desperate, full of 
treacherous ambuscades ; a campaign in which Euro- 
peans will not willingly serve. The armed forces which 
are always in the field have largely contributed to the 
slight deficit in the budget of the Dutch East Indies. As 
a result of its obstinate resistance Acheen has lost its 
native government, and is now under the authority of a 
military commandant, and will so continue until com- 
pletely pacified. 

II. 

In the still precarious conditions of the Dutch empire 
in Sumatra, Holland has divided the great island into six 







o 

B 

i 



.oiH 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 289 

Governments or Residencies. The boundaries of these 
divisions by no means always coincide with the old 
native boundaries, their character being purely strate- 
gical or economical, and intended to remould the native 
life upon a new basis, so that it may be in close touch 
with the Dutch domination. 

The Residents of Sumatra, several of whom bear the 
style of Governor, are noted among all the Dutch colo- 
nial oHcials as picked men of unusual ability. They 
have n ore authority than other Residents ; they have 
greater difficulties to cope with, and their duties are 
often doubled by the fact that they must act as skilful 
diplomatists upon occasion ; their situation compels 
them to a greater initiative, demands greater tact and 
authority than are required of the majority of Javanese 1 
Residents, who are a trifle spoiled by their comfortable 
and conventional semi-royalty. 

Sumatra contains six principal Governments or Resi- 
dencies : — 

i. The Government of the West Coast of Sumatra 
(Gouvemement Sumatra's Westkust), which itself consists 
of the three following Residencies : — 

(a) The Highlands of Padang (JPadangsche Boven- 
landeri), the capital being Fort de Kock, placed 
under the direct authority of the Governor ; 
(6) The Lowlands of Padang (JPadangsche Beneden- 

landeri), capital Padang ; 
(c) The Residency of Tapanuli, capital Padang 
Sidempuan. 

2. The Residency of Benkulan, capital Benkulan. 

3. The Residency of the Lampong districts (Lam- 
pongsche Districted), capital Telong-Betong. 

4. The Residency of Palembang, capital Palembang. 

5. The Residency of the East Coast of Sumatra {OosU 
kust van Sumatra), capital Medan. 

6. The Government of Acheen {A tjeh), capital Kota Rad j a. 

1 As a rule the Dutch Government tests the value of its future 
Residents by appointing them to difficult posts in Sumatra, Celebes, 
or Bali, before calling them to the relative repose of Java. 

20 



290 JAVA 

One of the characteristics of the various capital and 
other towns of these Residencies is the sparsity of the 
population, especially as compared with the over-popu- 
lation of Java. 

The Residency of the Highlands of Padang covers a 
magnificent country, which is overlooked by the high 
peaks of Merapi and Singgalang, and whose agricultural 
wealth is surpassed only by the wealth of coal beneath 
the surface. The capital, Fort de Kock (in Malay Bukit 
Tinggi), stands at a height of nearly 3,000 feet. The 
surroundings are most beautiful, and the climate is 
equable and refreshing ; an advantage which attracts 
many sufferers from beri-beri or liver complaints. The 
population numbers only 2,290, of whom 258 are Euro- 
peans and 345 Chinese. The position of Fort de Kock is 
especially good from the strategical point of view, but 
the destiny of the town is to become a centre of a new 
civilisation. The establishment of a Normal College for 
native teachers, and of a rack railway which connects the 
town with Padang and Padang Pandjang, already witness 
to the double capacity which the Dutch have assigned to 
the little capital. Padang Pandjang (1,907 inhabitants, 
including 207 Europeans and 340 Chinese), a district 
capital, is the most rainy spot in the whole Archipelago. 
Pajakumbu, or Pajakombo, which has even fewer inhabi- 
tants, is superbly situated amid luxuriant plantations of 
coffee ; Solok (1,443 inhabitants), Fort van der Capellen 
(723 inhabitants), and Lubu Sikaping, are more important 
from a military than a political or economic point of 
view. 

The capital of the Lowlands of Padang — Padang, with 
91,440 inhabitants, of whom 1,789 are Europeans, 5,136 
Chinese, and 210 Arabs — is, we must admit, a city of 
respectable size. 

Built on the Padang River, at the confluence of the 
Ajer Padang Aran and the Ajer Padang Idal, and scattered 
among groves of coco-palms and mango-trees, with the 
smoking cone of Talang shouldering the horizon ; a 
patchwork of houses! orchards,, trees, and avenues,, gay 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW L1NGGA 291 

with flower-beds in the European quarter, the city has 
a rustic seductive charm ; but for all that it plies a very 
important trade in all the products of the interior : coffee, 
tobacco, copra, gum dammar, and rubber : and an 
equally important export trade, which passes through its 
port, Emmahaven. Priaman, Ajer Bangis, and Painan, 
district capitals containing from 1,770 to 2,890 inhabitants, 
are also engaged in trade, which is facilitated, in the case 
of the two first-named, by the possession of a safe and 
well-protected harbour. 

The Residency of Tapanuli has for capital Padang 
Sidimpuan (17,610 inhabitants, 84 being Europeans and 
565 Chinese), a small but active commercial centre. 
Siboga, which has been supplanted by Padang Sidimpuan, 
its excellent port being insanitary, has only 3,128 in- 
habitants ; Gunung Tuwa, Sipirok, Penjabungan, Kota 
Nopan, Tarutung are district capitals, perhaps with a 
future before them, but none of them at present has a 
population exceeding a thousand. Natal, thanks to its 
port on the river of the same name, carries on a trade 
with Singapore, and exports salt from the Government 
depot ; its population numbers 2,879. Kota Baru was a 
great city under the Hindus, formerly the second trading 
centre on the coast, ranking next to Padang as a market 
for benzoin and camphor throughout the seventeenth 
century, but its trade was killed by the Achinese occupa- 
tion in the eighteenth century, and to-day it is only a 
poverty-stricken village. Singhel, although once a royal 
city, was also brought to decay by the Achinese 
domination. 

The Residency of Benkulen (Bencoolen) has its capital 
at Benkulen (7,721 inhabitants), whose past was richer 
than its present. The English and the Dutch in turn 
wished to make it a great commercial centre, and the 
capital of all their possessions on the Indian Ocean. But 
the roadstead, though safe, was silting up ; the climate 
was unhealthy and the town stricken with fever ; factors 
which defeated the plans of Raffles and the Dutch East 
Indian Company. To-day Benkulen is in decay, The 






292 JAVA 

district capitals, Mokko Mokko, a small port frequented 
by vessels engaged in the coasting trade, Pasar Tai's, 
Manna, Bintuhan on the Bay of Sambat, and Kepahiang, 
on the upper waters of the Musi, have none of them over 
1,200 inhabitants. Only Kroe, with its well-sheltered 
bay where the steamers of the Koninklijke Paketwaart 
Maatschappij call, has a population of 1,347. 

The Residency of the Lampongs is almost as sparsely 
populated. The activity of all its ports on the Straits of 
Sunda is limited to an insignificant coasting trade. The 
capital, Telok Betong, which is built on a fairly deep 
inlet or bay, boasts only of 3,759 inhabitants, of whom 
62 are Europeans, 850 Chinese, and 93 Arabs. The trade 
is principally in the hands of the Chinese and the Arabs. 

Tandjung Karang, Gunung Sugi, Sukadana, Kalianda, 
and even Kota Agung, on Emperor Bay (Keizersbaai), 
which is also known by the name of Semangka, are only 
insignificant collections of native kampongs, although they 
are district capitals. Menggala alone, on the Waikanan, 
but some distance inland, is more prosperous, boasting of 
nearly nine thousand inhabitants. 

The Residencies of the East Coast present a very 
different picture, being full of movement and vitality. 

The capital of the Residency, and formerly of the 
celebrated Sultanate of Palembang, is the city of the same 
name, containing 60,985 inhabitants. Among these are 
572 Europeans, 7,304 Chinese, and 2,420 Arabs ; a pro- 
portion that testifies to a vigorous export and import 
trade. The city is exquisitely picturesque, rising gradually 
from the two banks of the River Musi, at a distance of 
some 55 miles from the sea. So long is its river frontage 
that it takes from two to three hours to row from end to 
end. Palembang is accessible to vessels of heavy tonnage. 
Its houses are raised on piles ; those of the rich Arabs, 
and of the Chinese especially, are built of the precious 
tembesu 1 wood, decorated with carving and gilding, or 

1 Tembesoe, tembesu, temusu. Fagrcea fragrans Roxb. (Logoniacce). 
An excellent wood for building and cabinet-making, &c. (density '8), 
which the Dutch call " Palembang ironwood " (Palembangsche, 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 293 

brightly painted, and, surrounded by small gardens, are 
to be seen in their special quarters. The centre of the 
great river, which is more than a thousand feet wide, is 
occupied by other houses — Arab, Chinese, Hindu, Malay 
— perched high above the water on account of the terrible 
freshets, and resting on large rafts, which keep their 
stations so long as they have anything left to sell, and 
then work up into the interior of the country to lay in 
their stock of merchandise, towing their floating houses 
where they will, halting where they will. 

The European quarter is set apart from the native 
kampongs. A graceful mosque of stone, marble, and 
teak, with three superimposed conical roofs, and a fine 
octagonal minaret, overlooks this East Indian Venice — 
gay, dirty, swarming with life, and luminous with sunlight. 

Tandjung Radja, Mura Dua, and Talang Betutu are 
of no great importance ; Sekaju is more active ; Lahat, 
in the midst of dense forests which are still over-full of 
tigers, is a good military position ; Tebing Tinggi (1,328 
inhabitants), on the Musi River and the highway from 
Palembang to Benkulen, has a still greater strategical 
value, on account of its moral effect upon the seditious 
populations in the neighbouring districts. Tebing Tinggi 
seems to be destined to acquire an importance of a very 
different order, as for some years past large mining 
concessions have been granted in the district. 

Djambi (8,993 inhabitants, of whom 38 are Europeans, 
530 Chinese, and 533 Arabs), which is built upon both 
banks of the Djambi River, was formerly almost as 
picturesque and flamboyant as Palembang ; to-day the 
European quarter consists of ten or twelve houses on the 
right bank, opposite the kraton of the Sultan, which by 
their very presence annul the despotism of the latter. 
Djambi used to be as intolerant as Palembang in the 
matter of allowing the Chinese, Hindus, and even the 
Arabs to build their houses in the town, and possesses, 

Ijzerhout). It is of a light yellow or brown colour, beautifully 
veined, hard, solid, close in grain, and capable of taking an 
excellent polish. 



294 JAVA 

like the latter city, a floating town of houseboats in its 
port, Muara Kompei. Despite its trade with Singapore, 
it is declining ; only a vigorous reorganisation could 
give it new life. 

Rengat, the ancient capital of the kingdom of Indragiri, 
is a dead city. 

The Government of the East Coast of Sumatra has its 
seat at Medan (14,250 inhabitants, including 905 Euro- 
peans, 6,397 Chinese, 43 Arabs, and 3,665 Asiatic 
foreigners : Bengalis, Tamils, &c), a town created by 
the Dutch. On the site of an old native fortress on 
the Deli River, in the district of the same name, they 
have built up the largest centre of the Sumatran tobacco 
trade, the whole of the neighbouring plain being devoted 
to tobacco plantations ; but a strong garrison reminds us 
that agriculture has its troubles in a seditious or rebellious 
country. The European quarter is clean, well laid out, 
airy, and planted with many beautiful shade-trees. Hidden 
amidst the verdure are the immense buildings of the 
concessionary Tobacco Company of Deli, including their 
warehouses and offices and a large well-appointed asylum 
for the native immigrants (Immigrant en- Asyl) who come 
to work upon the tobacco plantations : also a huge hos- 
pital for the European employees and native labourers 
of the company. The native population lives on land 
belonging to the Sultan, in poor kampongs of wooden 
huts and houses, huddled closely together ; but the 
magnificent new kraton of the Sultan is outside Medan. 
Medan has an excellent outer port — Belawan — the ter- 
minus of the Deli-Medan Railway, at the mouth of the 
River Deli — which carries on a steady trade with 
Singapore and Penang. Tandjung Pura (3,612 inhabi- 
tants, including 938 Chinese), the capital of the Sultanate 
of Langkat, plies an active trade in pepper, petroleum, 
rattan, wax, gambier, and tobacco ; principally with the 
interior, but it is entirely in the hands of the Chinese. 

Lubuk Pakam, the departmental capital of Serdang, is 
also half Chinese, by reason of the wealth of the able 
Celestial traders. Tandjung Balai (3,790 inhabitants, of 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 295 

whom 59 are Europeans and 1,791 Chinese), the ancient 
capital of the kingdom of Asahan, and Tebing Tinggi, in 
the district of Padang and Bedagei (7,014 inhabitants) 
are every day gaining importance on account of their 
increasing commercial activity, while Bengkalis (7,920 
inhabitants, of whom 1,462 are Chinese), the former 
capital of the Residency, a port advantageously situated 
on an island, within touch of many tobacco plantations, 
is declining. The Dutch at one time dreamed of making 
it another Singapore. Its unhealthiness resulted in its 
gradual decay ; a decay less miserable, however, than 
that of Siak, which was formerly the seat of a sovereign. 
We must also note Saribu Dolok, the district capital of 
Simelungen and of the Karo country (Karolanden), but 
a town of no great importance. 

The military government of Acheen contains more 
villages than towns, concerning which it is as yet by no 
means easy to obtain exact information. 

The capital of the Government of Kota Radja, contain- 
ing 3,704 inhabitants (including 290 Europeans and 1,025 
Chinese) is said, doubtless with exaggeration, to have 
contained 25,000 in the old days. To-day it is merely 
a vast barracks, with the addition of kampongs — 
Chinese, Javanese, &c. — on a specially reserved site. 
The kraton of the former Sultan, a huge fortified 
rectangle, half a mile wide and nearly a mile in length, 
surrounded by a deep moat, and traversed by the Krung 
Daru, is occupied by the Governor, the military head- 
quarters, and a small garrison ; the rest of the troops 
being stationed to the south of the kraton, in the 
magnificent camp at Nesu. We must not forget the 
great mosque with metallic cupolas — the Masdjid Radja 
— which was built by the Dutch Government in 1881 to 
replace that destroyed during a desperate battle which 
was fought before the town. A steam tramway, which 
crosses a remarkable iron trestle-way, connects Kota 
Radja with its port, Oleh Leh, the journey taking an 
hour and a half. The tramway runs along a narrow 
isthmus of sand, on both sides of which are innumerable 



296 JAVA 

small lagoons. Oleh Leh, or Uleieh Leueh, which was 
deserted by European shipping twenty years ago, has 
once more begun to be of some importance since the 
Dutch occupation, though in a less degree than Sabang 
(1,000 inhabitants) on the island of Pulu Weh. Not only 
is the surrounding country rich in pepper, but Sabang is 
the shortest route, and the necessary port of embarkation, 
for the traveller by sea to Europe, North America, Singa- 
pore, and the entire Far East. The Bay of Sabang, 
entrance to which is nearly half a mile wide, contains an 
anchorage nearly a mile in length and over half a mile 
in width, while the depth runs from 13 to 18 fathoms. 
It has been much improved since the flag of the Nether- 
lands was planted there in 1877, and is accessible to 
warships as well as merchant vessels. Both, in fact, are 
using the harbour with increasing frequency, and there 
seems to be a great future in store for Sabang. 

The Residency of the archipelago of Riouw Lingga 
contains no large towns. The capital, Tandjung Priok, 
has a population of 4,088. 

Muntok, the capital of the Residency of Banka, is 
supposed to contain 25,000 inhabitants; as a matter of 
fact this figure is disputed. 

The capital of the Assistant-Residency of Billiton, 
Tandjung Pandan, has only 4,900 inhabitants; 18 of 
these are Europeans, and 1,015 Chinese. 

III. 

We see that the population of Sumatra is by no means 
in proportion to its large area, and this from various 
causes. War between the various peoples has been too 
frequent to allow of great increase ; while among several 
of the less civilised, such as the Bataks, the birth-rate 
has been restricted. Then rational hygiene is to all 
intents absolutely unknown ; while other factors are 
poverty, insecurity of life, and the exhaustion of women 
by premature marriage or by too heavy labour. All these 
causes, it seems, might disappear or diminish were 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 297 

peace and comparative wealth established throughout 
the island ; and the first thing to be done for the 
benefit of the Sumatrese should be the economic develop- 
ment of their country ; on condition that its full value 
should be realised without the severity and the sacrifice 
of human life which attended the development of Java 
by the system of Van den Bosch ; a condition guaranteed 
by the humanitarian sentiment of modern Holland, and 
the obstinate and hostile humour of the Sumatrese. 

A glance at the natural wealth of Sumatra, by which 
the natives benefit so little, and the remarkable results 
obtained everywhere when European methods and 
enterprise have been at work, are enough to show what 
the future of Sumatra should be. 

This vast island, it seems, is even more richly endowed 
by nature than is Java. Its subsoil, to judge by a neces- 
sarily limited examination, is full of treasure : gold and 
silver are found in remarkable quantities in the High- 
lands of Padang and in the Residencies of Tapanuli 
and Palembang. Tin, which forms the principal wealth 
of Banka, Billiton, and Riouw, is also found in Siak ; 
lead is found in the Nine Kotas and the Thirteen Kotas, 
to the south of the Residency of the Highlands of 
Padang ; copper exists everywhere in the neighbourhood 
of the Lake of Singkarah ; sulphur, naphtha, alum, and 
saltpetre are plentiful in the neighbourhood of all the 
volcanoes. Magnetite exists in the district of Tanah 
Datur ; lignite in the Highlands of Padang, at Siboga 
on the Indrapura River, and at Benkulen ; and marble 
on the upper reaches of the Indragiri. Finally — which 
opens a wonderful future for Sumatra as a mining 
country — not only is the subsoil rich in auriferous and 
other ores, but there are magnificent coal-measures in 
the Highlands of Padang at Ombilin (Umbilen, Umbilien, 
Dutch Oembilen), and at Behangen in Palembang, and 
petroleum in Palembang, Siak, Deli, and Achin. 

The island is no less richly endowed with vegetable 
wealth. On the more thickly wooded western coast 
and throughout all the centre of Sumatra there are 



298 JAVA 

abundant forests ; full of teak, santal, and ebony, to say 
nothing of less valuable varieties of timber ; and what 
is perhaps still better, all the gum-producing trees — the 
camphor-tree, the benzoin-tree, and countless others. 
Palms are found as in Java, in all their varieties, from 
the coco-nut and the areng to the sago-palm ; the latter 
is in particular found throughout the whole archipelago 
of Riouw Lingga. All the eastern coast of Acheen is 
planted with areca-palms, and supplies part of Sumatra 
and even part of Java with areca-nut for the preparation 
of sirih. 

Food crops and others grow at their best in Sumatra. 
Rice is found almost everywhere; coffee grows admirably 
on the whole of the east coast ; less so in the Lampong 
country, and passably in Palembang. Tobacco succeeds 
admirably on the west coast ; pepper and the nutmeg 
are grown to a certain extent everywhere ; but intensively 
in Acheen, which before the chronic warfare with Holland 
commenced furnished nearly two-thirds of the world's 
consumption of pepper, nearly 18,000 tons having been 
exported annually, especially from the ports on the west 
coast. Sugar-cane grows best in the Riouw archipelago, 
which is less humid than Sumatra. 

The Sumatrese native has not many resources in the 
department of the chase. The great wild bull is rare ; 
the boar is despised ; the tapir is almost uneatable. 
With the exception of a few of the larger beasts, and 
innumerable herds of deer, whose flesh is widely eaten 
in the dried state, and whose tendons and hooves, and 
antlers, if still young and with the velvet on, are greatly 
sought after by the Chinese in Java, there is little edible 
game. Roedeer also abound, and birds of endless variety. 

The fisheries should be more fruitful, for fish of 
almost every species swarm upon the coasts of Sumatra ; 
being even more plentiful than off the Javanese coast. 
Sea fish or river fish — mackerel, tunny, rays, sharks — 
caught for the sake of their fins, which are sold to the 
Chinese — carps, barbel, eels, and in particular the 
delicious Indian shad or trubuk, of which the flesh, 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 299 

whether fresh or dried, and especially the prepared roe, 
is greatly appreciated throughout the Archipelago. 
There are extensive shad fisheries on both coasts of 
Sumatra, particularly on the eastern coast. The bulk 
of the product, so highly esteemed in Java, is exported 
from Palembang and Djambi. 

In the seas around the Riouw Lingga archipelago are 
found agar-agar, 1 trepang, and also the ekor bahar, a 
brilliantly black coral, shaped like a horn. The cliffs 
and caves, both in Acheen and Riouw, yield the precious 
nest of the sea-swallow. 

IV. 

What profit do the Sumatrese derive from all these 
natural resources ? Simply their living ; rarely a little 
comfort. They plant rice for their own needs, but 
always in an insufficient quantity, thanks to sheer lack 
of foresight and indifference to the morrow. In one 
detail their methods of cultivation are superior to those 
of the Javanese : namely, they reap the rice with a 
sickle in place of cutting it one stem at a time with a 
little knife. They eat a portion of the produce of their 
hunting and their fisheries, and sell the rest at absurd 
prices to the Chinese, who alone profit by their efforts. 
With the exception of gambier 2 and pepper, and spices, 

1 Agar-agar y the Malay name of an edible seaweed, Spherococcus 
lichenoides. Boiled in water, it forms a jelly which is greatly 
appreciated in the Far East. It is used in the composition of 
swallows'-nest soup, and is also employed to make silk or paper 
transparent, being applied in the form of a clear paste. 

This forms a favourite and a ceremonial dish among the South 
Sea Islands. In Scotland the seaweed named "dulse" is eaten 
both raw and cooked ; and in Wessex the green laver is boiled, 
forming an imperfect jelly, and used as a condiment with meat, 
fish, &c. — [Trans.] 

2 Gambit or gambier, an extract obtained by evaporating in the 
open air decoctions of the leaves of the Unicaria gambir Roxb., or 
the Nauclea gambir Hunt. The dried deposit is exported in the 
form of cubical cakes about one inch in diameter. Gambier is 
used in the preparation of quids of betel. The Riouw archipelago 



300 JAVA 

of which long contact with Europeans and the example 
of the latter has taught them the value — especially the 
Achinese — the natives of Sumatra export practically 
nothing except a certain amount of building timber, 
copra, rubber, gum dammar, and hides, principally to 
Singapore or Batavia ; very seldom as far as Amsterdam. 
The principal trade of the island is from one side to 
the other, from one port to the next, sometimes by the 
primitive method of exchange. As the commerce of 
the island is principally in the hands of the Chinese, 
though there are a few rare Europeans who are by no 
means their inferiors in rapacity and duplicity, the 
profit which the irresponsible native derives from it is 
practically non-existent. 

The industries of Sumatra are strictly local and 
regrettably primitive. The island produces nothing 
that is really worth mentioning beyond some basket- 
work, filigree-work, a little notably good work in copper, 
and a few textile products woven in the Highlands of 
Padang, in Palembang and in Djambi. The pottery, 
rattan furniture, clothing, jewels, and arms manufac- 
tured in the island only testify to an ability and a 
civilisation of the second class. 



V. 

The Europeans are now demonstrating to the natives 
that they might extract both gold and a higher standard 
of living from their native soil ; but hitherto the natives 
have hardly derived any other benefit from the process 
than the example itself. 

The mines of Sumatra have for twenty years been 
exploited in a manner both rational and profitable. 

The tin-mines of Banka, Billiton, Singkep, and the 
archipelago of Riouw, which were discovered in the 

produces an enormous quantity, of which more than 7,000 tons 
comes from the small island of Bintang. The trade in gambier is 
as yet monopolised by the Chinese, who export it to all parts of 
the Archipelago. 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 301 

eighteenth century, probably between 1709 and 171 1, 
and were leased by the Chinese from the Sultan of 
Palembang, were worked by the Chinese without much 
method, but greatly to their profit, until 1740, when 
the Dutch seized upon them and made them a State 
monopoly. The Chinese, who came, in proportions 
roughly equal, from Amoy and Canton — the latter being 
much inferior both in mind and morals — from being the 
tenants of the mines, became miners, overseers, or coolies. 

In 1907-1908 the total production of Banka tin was 
11,515 tons, while about 18,000 miners or coolies were 
employed. Billiton, with 73 mines and 11,128 workers, 
produced 4000 tons ; excluding a small amount pro- 
duced by the natives. At Singkep, in the island of 
Riouw, 1,009 workers produced 307 tons. From this 
tin alone the Dutch Government received a revenue 
of nearly .£2,000,000. 

This handsome addition to the East Indian budget 
is destined to preserve its equilibrium, and is certainly 
well employed, but it is none the less greatly regrettable 
that all this wealth contributes so little to the welfare 
and improvement of the natives. The natives live 
altogether apart from the mines, and are extremely 
poor ; the coolies that work in the mines are drawn 
from the dregs of the Chinese population, and are very 
badly paid. The coolie's agent or labour contractor 
receives all the expenses of importing him, including 
passage money, cost of engagement, commission, and 
medical examination, and the value of his wages at the 
rate of 1 florin 20 (two shillings) per diem ; but the 
coolie himself receives only a fraction less than 4d. per 
diem for food, and wages at the rate of 12s. 6d. per 
month. He must engage himself for at least a year : 
tempted by opium, driven by the physical distress that 
follows its discontinuance, and obliged to obtain all 
that he needs upon credit ; clothed and fed at usurious 
prices by the stores run or leased by the labour agent 
himself ; burdened with debts and with vices, he can 
no longer hope to escape from the mine, and only too 



302 JAVA 

often dies in abject poverty in sight of the natural 
treasure-house that has taken his life. Although during 
the last fifteen years the State has endeavoured to 
diminish the more revolting features of this trade in 
human cattle, there is still much to be done both in 
Banka and in the other mining districts. 

The production of petroleum, which is in the hands 
of powerful private companies, 1 is also yielding an 
enormous revenue. 

In 1907 the petroleum concessions in Palembang yielded 
72,010,000 gallons ; those on the east coast 30,605,000 
gallons, and those in Achin 54,430,000 gallons. Sumatra, 
together with Java and Borneo, places the Dutch West 
Indies among the great petroleum centres of the world. 

As for coal, in 1907, Behangan (Palembang) yielded 
only 354 tons ; but the rich measures of Ombilin yielded 
300,990 tons, and their yield has increased year by year 
for many years past. The construction of a railway 
in the Padang Highlands makes it possible to send the 
coal from the pits of Ombilin to the port of Emmahaven, 
whose fortune is being made by this trade in coal. 

The mines of Redjang Lebong and Lebong Sulit, not 
far from Benkulen, are yielding both silver and gold. 
The first named yielded in 1903 (which was, it is true, a 
good year) 5*458 tons, or more than 12,000 pounds of 
silver; the second 501 pounds. 

1 The three principal companies in 1900 were: (1) The Royal 
Dutch Petroleum Company, founded at The Hague in 1890, owning 
wells in Langkat and Tamiang, on the east coast, and also two 
great refineries, has reservoirs at Shanghai, Hongkong, Calcutta, 
Bangkok, Swatow, Madras, Bombay, Kurachi, Amoy, and Fuchu ; 
(2) The Mura-Emim Petroleum Company, founded at Amsterdam 
in 1897 ; (3) the Sumatra- Palembang Petroleum Company, founded 
at The Hague in 1897. The two latter companies operate in the 
Residency of Palembang. Starting with less capital than the first, 
they have had the good fortune to discover deeper wells than those 
of their richer rival, which yield a greater flow of oil ; but in 1904 
the Royal Dutch bought up all the concessions of the Mura-Emim 
Company. The petroleum is exported via Singapore to China, 
India, and Japan, and is replacing American oil, 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 303 

In 1907 the production of gold in Sumatra was still 
greater than that" of ' silver, amounting to 3,234 pounds' 
weight, and -£182,280 in value. 



VI. 

Agriculture, in skilled hands, should prove to be 
the real gold-mine of Sumatra. In 1833 the Dutch 
Government attempted to introduce the compulsory 
cultivation of coffee, the only crop which the climate 
seemed at that time likely to suit — in that part of the 
island wherein it exercised a genuine authority : namely, 
on the east coast, in the Residencies of Benkulan, Padang, 
and Tapanuli. Forced to abandon the system in the 
flourishing and peaceful island of Java, the Government 
could not expect to extend it to Sumatra, where the crops, 
moreover, were neither as plentiful nor as high in quality 
as those of Java. It is accordingly vanishing year by 
year before the free plantations of the natives and the 
estates of the European planters, and the Government is 
letting its land to the latter upon long leases as in Java. 

In 1907, however, the Government crop in the Padang 
Highlands still amounted to 24,117 piculs (about 1,418 
tons) of coffee ; in the Padang Lowlands to 615 piculs 
(about 50 tons) ; and in Tapanuli to 5,333 piculs (313 
tons) as against 1,587 tons produced in the same Resi- 
dencies by free native labour, and 421 tons by private 
initiation. On the east coast of the island the natives 
produced 1,170 tons and the European planters 2,226 
tons. 

In the neighbourhood of Bankulan, and in Palembang 
and the Lampong country, where the growth of coffee is 
tending to decrease, the natives produced 267 and the 
European planters 233 tons. Sumatra does not export 
its coffee direct, but sells it on the markets of Java. 

But coffee is not enough to bring fortune to Sumatra. 
Pepper and nutmeg were experimented with; but after 
a series of trials the Government abandoned the intensive 
culture of these products. The plantations did not 



304 JAVA 

always succeed ; or there was an over~product!^n, and 
the prices fell. However, in addition to the pepper pro- 
duced by Acheen and Palembang in 1907, Sumatra pro- 
duced as much on the east and west coasts as in Acheen ; 
namely, 380 tons of nutmeg and 56 tons of mace ; but 
most of this was produced by natives. 

It is tobacco that should make the fortune of Sumatra, 
or at least of the large European companies in Sumatra. 
Tobacco has succeeded wonderfully, as regards both 
quality and quantity, on all the east coast plantations : 
in Sangkat, Deli, Serdang, Tamiang, Padang, Bedagei, 
Batu Baro, Asahan, and the Karo country ; but now, 
owing to the formation of a powerful trust, all the plan- 
tations have fallen into the hands of a powerful financial 
group, 1 which employs thousands of hands — Malays, 
Bataks, Hindus, Chinese, and even Javanese 2 emigrants 
from their own over-populated country, and has built 
for their use dormitories, a vast hospital, canteens, and 
steward's offices. 

The production of tobacco in 1907 amounted to 
23,342 tons, slightly inferior in quantity to that of Java, 
but superior in quality, and representing a value of 
.£3,250,000. In 1906 the crop was exceptionally good, 
representing a value of ^5,083,540. 

Here is a very river of gold, which the natives ought 
to be enabled, with the assistance of the Government, to 
swell by individual enterprise, and so turn aside some 
part of it to their own profit. 



VII. 

Such figures as these show us what Sumatra might 
become from the economic point of view, especially if 
the means of communication were improved ; for we 

1 Hindus and Chinese are not allowed to rent or buy land in 
this part of Sumatra. 

2 The Javanese are not greatly valued as agricultural labourers in 
Sumatra ; the climate does not suit them, nor do they grow accus- 
tomed to it. They are easy to handle, but are not strong. 



SUMATRA AND RIOUW LINGGA 305 

must admit that at present they leave much to be desired. 
Along the seaboard belt roads are bad and infrequent, 
although the Government is doing its best, by means of 
such compulsory labour as is available, to open up as 
many as possible and to maintain those that already 
exist. In the interior there are practically no means of 
transport whatever, excepting almost impracticable paths 
or trails which the inhabitants, who as yet are far from 
submission, insist upon leaving as they are, with sullen 
and perhaps instinctive obstinacy. In case of rebellion 
they can take refuge in the impenetrable jungle, and defy, 
at least for a time, the advance of the Dutch troops. 

We should seek in vain through Sumatra for the fellow 
to the wonderful road from Anjer to Panarukan which 
even to-day astonishes the visitor to Java ; the iron hand 
of Daendels and the docile spirit of the Javanese have been 
equally unknown in Sumatra. The Dutch Government, 
than which no one is more conscious of the strategical 
and political necessity of good roads, is slowly but surely 
supplying them, with a continuity and a determination 
that are necessary in dealing with the populations of 
Sumatra. Within fifteen years from now, thanks to the 
State, and to private enterprise, the seaboard regions at 
least will be well provided with roads. 

In the meantime there are already 187 miles of railway 
in Sumatra, belonging partly to the State and partly to 
private companies, and more are about to be built. To 
these 187 miles, of which the line to Deli takes 50 and 
the lines on the west coast 137, we must add 98 miles of 
steam tramways, by means of which Belawan, Medan, 
Deli, and Tuwa are connected with a branch running 
from Medan to Timbang-Langkat and Salesseh, and 
250 miles which runs along the east coast and through 
the centre of Acheen. The lines from Deli are intended 
especially for commercial purposes, and serve the great 
tobacco plantations ; the Acheen line is more of a 
strategical value. Convinced that Acheen would never 
be subjected until columns of troops could be carried 
swiftly from one end of the kingdom to the other, the 

21 



306 JAVA 

Government has built a line connecting the principal 
towns : Tandjung, Kala, Idi, Lha Seumawei, Samalanga, 
Sigli, Kota Radja, and Oleh-Leh. It has thus succeeded 
in pacifying the entire coast, and when once the interior 
i of the country is made accessible by good roads the 
Achinese resistance will be vanquished. 

The west coast of Sumatra is partly served by a rack 
railway, which is at once of commercial and strategical 
value; it starts from Pajakombo, passes through Fort 
de Kock, the key of the Bataks' country and the ancient 
kingdom of Menangkabau, and at Padang Padjang 
throws off a branch line towards the Singkarah region, 
which serves the mines of Ombilin, and carries not only 
minerals, but the coffee crops of the whole Padang 
region, to Padang itself and to Emmahaven. The trade 
of the interior of the country is carried on by means of 
the rivers, principally by the native praus, the magnifi- 
cent streams of Sumatra being too badly impeded by 
alluvial deposits to allow steamers or vessels of high 
tonnage upon more than a very small part of their 
length. The exportation of the goods collected by the 
prau traffic is carried on chiefly by means of small coast- 
ing vessels, or by the Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij, 
which touches at Kroe and at Sabang every fortnight ; 
thus connecting Sumatra with the Archipelago and the 
outer world. A line of English steamers also carries on 
an active export and import trade with Singapore, this 
trade being especially brisk in the case of Eastern 
Sumatra. 

So soon as there is a complete political understanding 
between Holland and the peoples of Sumatra, and the 
latter at last consent to exploit the riches of their island ; 
so soon as good highways or further railways make 
transport and travelling an easy matter, Sumatra will 
be able to rival Java in wealth ; and its population will 
rapidly increase tenfold. 



CHAPTER XV 

BORNEO 

I. Dimensions of Borneo : how divided among the Powers. — II. 
Orography and hydrography. — III. Climate, flora, and fauna. — 

IV. The inhabitants : their manners and their civilisation — 

V. The establishment of Dutch supremacy in Borneo. — VI. 
Administrative divisions and principal towns. — VII. The 
economic situation ; what it may one day become. 



I. 

Borneo, situated to the north of Java, between Celebes, 
the Malay Peninsula, and the archipelago of Riouw 
Lingga, washed by the China Sea, the Java Sea, the Sea of 
Celebes and the Sea of Sulu, is the largest of all the 
islands which go to make up the Dutch East Indies. Its 
area is 285,220 square miles, or seven or eight times^ that 
of Java, and half as large again as France. Its popula- 
tion, however, is even smaller than that of Sumatra, 
being only 1,700,000 or thereabouts (according to the 
most plausible estimates). Only a portion of the island 
belongs to Holland, and it is still the least known, the 
least submissive, one of the least civilised, and perhaps 
the least profitable, because the least exploited, of all the 
Dutch colonial possessions. 

Very different in outline from Java, with its long and 
narrow shape, and Sumatra, with its gracefully curving 
coast-lines, or Celebes, so fantastically formed of pro- 
montories and winding inlets, Borneo gives the im- 
pression of a vast, squat island, covered with dense 
forests, seamed by great rivers, defended by a muddy 



308 JAVA 

littoral, backed by swamps, the home of pernicious 
vapours and putrid miasmata. 

The Spaniards were the first to land, in 1521. The 
Dutch followed in 1598 ; perhaps considerably earlier. 
They in turn were followed by the English, who, when 
the Spaniards had been driven off, disputed their foot- 
hold with the Dutch East Indies Company. The con- 
flict endured through the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries, without any notable profit on either side, for 
the stubborn savagery of the uncivilised inhabitants, 
the treacherous hypocrisy of their innumerable princes, 
and the suspicious hostility of the Chinese rendered their 
factories more precarious than profitable. 

In 1892 the two rivals agreed to terms which definitely 
limit the province of either. All the north, and part of 
the west, or about one-third of the island, was aban- 
doned by Holland, and so passed under the real or 
surreptitious suzerainty of England. The Sultanate of 
Brunei, formerly a useful ally of the Dutch, is still 
extant, but is reduced to an insignificant fraction of its 
former dimensions, while the Sultan's authority is prac- 
tically illusory ; it is under the English protectorate, 
and sandwiched between the two heirs to its past 
splendour. To the east are the territories of the British 
North Borneo Company, which in the first place were 
ceded by Brunei to certain Americans, but were then 
sold by the latter to the English company. To the west 
is the Rajahlik of Sarawak, which was created by a 
Sultan of Brunei in 1841 for the celebrated James 
Brooke, and is still governed by a member of his family 
under the wholly nominal suzerainty of Brunei. All 
this part of Borneo — fertile, well watered, with a rich 
subsoil — has undoubtedly profited by English rule ; it 
has been methodically explored, as much for scientific 
as for economic reasons ; the population has increased, 
and towns have sprung up. Although England has not 
succeeded, as she had hoped, in making another Singa- 
pore of the island of Labuan, she possesses in Borneo 
a valuable and flourishing colony. 



1 








GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL S HOME, BORNEO. 




A ROPE FERRY, BORNEO. 



To face r>. 308. 



BORNEO 309 

Holland has retained the suzerainty of 222,850 square 
miles of territory : that is, of a country seventeen times as 
large as Holland herself, and a trifle larger than France, 
and a population which in 1909 was estimated by con- 
jecture, but without exaggeration, as amounting to 
1,172,800, including 55,520 Chinese, 3,140 Arabs, and 
1,382 Europeans. 

II. 

The geological formation of Borneo may be largely 
referred to the tertiary period ; but in Borneo alone 
of all the islands of the Archipelago fossils have been 
found of a period anterior to the tertiary. There is 
much less evidence of volcanic action in Borneo than in 
the rest of the Archipelago. 

The island is crossed by a series of mountainous tracts 
running from the north-east to the south-west, where 
they spread out into several distinct ranges. In the 
centre of the island also there are some ramifications 
of the main range, less notable than those of the south- 
west, which run in a south-easterly direction. The 
northern part of the chain contains the highest peaks 
of the whole Archipelago : Kinibalu, for example, on 
the territory of the British North Borneo Company, has 
been given by the latest explorers a height of 13,350 feet. 
Batu Tebangin the Iran Mountains is 9,800 feet high ; but 
the crests of the Miiller and Schwaner ranges, which 
slope towards the south, are only some 4,900 to 5,300 
feet above sea-level. Satui, near Bandjermasin, at the 
southern extremity of the island, is only some 4,200 
feet in height. 

The rivers of Borneo are numerous, with an abundant 
flow, and many are navigable for many miles inland ; yet 
the majority are impeded by mud-banks, trees, and a 
dense alluvial ooze, which they carry seaward and 
deposit at the mouth, thus pushing the coast-line further 
out to sea, but making it pestiferous with fetid and 
poisonous swamps. 



310 JAVA 

The chief rivers of the west coast are the Brunei, 
flowing through British Borneo, on the estuary of which 
is the capital of the same name, and the Redjang, and on 
Dutch territory the Kapuas, which is considerably longer 
than the others, flowing into the sea through a muddy 
delta some 70 miles in width. 

The rivers of the east coast, especially those draining 
Dutch territory, are of still greater importance ; they are 
the Serojan, the Mentaja Sampit, the Katingan and the 
vast Barito, which is navigable far up its course by vessels 
of considerable tonnage. At the mouth of the Barito is 
Bandjersmasin, the great port of Eastern Borneo. At 
a distance of 60 miles above the sea the Barito divides 
into two branches, both of which are navigable, and one 
of which receives the waters of another large river, 
the Kapuas. The result of such a mingling of mud and 
water is a variable, shifting delta, whose area is seldom 
less than 770 square miles, and which, in times of flood, 
when the Kapuas and the Barito overflow, will some- 
times cover an area of nearly 11,000 square miles. 
Further to the east is the Mahakkam, or Kubi, which 
flows between low hills, and is as muddy as the Barito, 
and ends in a delta as huge and as marshy as that of the 
Barito. 

In a country so heavily watered and so rich in valleys 
there are many lakes, though these cannot be compared 
in size or in depth with the Sea of Toba or the Sea of 
Singkarah in Sumatra. The more important of these 
lakes empty themselves into the western Kapuas, the 
Serojan, and the Kutei. 



III. 

The climate of Borneo, which is situated on the 
Equator, is naturally extremely hot, but quite supportable 
owing to its insular situation and the sea-breeze, which 
cools the whole island. As a rule the temperature 
varies between 72 and 93 , although it sometimes rises 
higher. It is the terrible humidity of the atmosphere 



BORNEO 311 

that makes the climate dangerous and so inferior to 
that of Java or Sumatra ; a humidity due to the enor- 
mous rainfall (the average annual rainfall amounts to 
7875 inches), the abundant rivers, the dense forests, and 
the innumerable swamps, the source of pestilence and 
fever. The climate is far harder to support and far more 
pernicious in the interior than on the coasts, as the sea- 
breeze falls flat amid the impenetrable woods, where the 
exuberant soil is always thick with masses of decom- 
posing vegetation. The flora of Borneo is extremely rich 
in forest trees, the forests covering almost the whole 
interior save for a few jungles. Here are found all kinds 
of building timber, and trees of all the varieties that 
produce gums and resins ; so that if sufficient labour and 
a sufficiency of good roads were available the exploitation 
of the forests would not merely tend to improve the 
health of the island, but would enrich it incalculably. 
Although the flora of the island, which recalls that of 
India, Sumatra, and Australia, accordingly as one travels 
to the west, the south, or the south-east, is less prodi- 
gal than that of the first two countries, and more 
vigorous than that of the last, it also has its own 
characteristics. One tree that is particularly character- 
istic of Borneo, by its abundance and its beauty, is the 
sago-palm (Metroxylon laeve Mart., M. sagas Roxb., M. 
Rumphii Wild.), which grows not only in the interior, 
near the rivers, but also by itself, in dense belts along 
the muddy shores of the great island. The pith of the 
sago-palm extracted and pressed into cakes will, with 
a few days' labour, furnish over 650 lbs. of an excellent 
food : in other words, sufficient to nourish a man for a 
year. Although there is little progress in Borneo, there 
is evidently no possibility of dying of hunger : nature, 
by furnishing man's necessities at the cost of the slightest 
effort, has discouraged him, so to speak, from desiring 
anything more. 

The fauna of Borneo resembles that of Sumatra, except 
that the tiger is rare or absent ; the elephant and the 
rhinoceros are encountered principally in the north-east 



312 JAVA 

of the island; panthers abound, and are extensively 
hunted, their skins forming part of the accoutrement of 
the Dyak warriors. In Borneo, as in Java, the great 
wild bull, or banteng, is found ; there are herds of 
deer, which are hunted with the spear or the bow ; 
last, but not least, comes the orang-outang, or u man of 
the woods/' who is thought to have originated in Borneo. 
Numerous crocodiles infest the shore and the mud- 
banks of the rivers. The inhabitants of Borneo have 
added practically nothing to the fauna, except by 
domesticating the goat, the pig, the dog, and the cat. 
On the west coast there is an imported race of dogs 
with black tongues, which are greatly esteemed as food 
by the Chinese. 



IV. 

Of the very small population of Dutch Borneo 
(1,172,680 souls) probably rather less than a million 
belong to the Dyak tribes, who are the real natives of 
the country. These Dyaks, scattered over a vast area, 
and differentiated according to their locality, have often 
been regarded as belonging to different races ; but the 
contrary opinion is as prevalent to-day. A matter which 
is less clear is whether the Dyaks are autochthonous in 
Borneo. Not long ago, from the testimony of Arab 
writers, who were fertile in curious but sometimes over- 
marvellous recitals, and the reports of credulous explorers, 
it was believed that the Dyaks had driven back into the 
heart of the island the original sons of the soil — those 
savages with a caudal appendix, whom contemporary 
science has failed to trace. It would be more rational to 
admit the continued existence in the central forests of 
a few handfuls of stunted and miserable savages, now 
disappearing, armed only with the bow and the blowpipe, 
black-skinned, and in every way resembling the Negritos 
of the Philippines. The Dyaks who have replaced them 
are visibly of the Malayo-Polynesian race, near relatives 
of the Bataks of Sumatra, and also, it would seem, of the 



BORNEO 313 

Chams, Bahnars, Stiengs, Radeis, and Djareis of French 
Indo-China. Whether indigenous or not, they are, as 
regards their physical aspect, extremely well built ; taller 
and stronger than the Malays and the Javanese, with 
features fairly regular, and their faces, with their clear 
yellowish colouring, are not displeasing, despite the 
flattening of the nose and the prominence of the lips. 
Their manner is cheerful and confident. The Dyak 
has the reputation of being hospitable and honest, but 
extremely idle, indifferent as to the truth, hasty and 
quarrelsome when he considers himself affronted, and 
passionately fond of his independence and the nomadic 
life. But in speaking of the Dyaks we ought to dis- 
tinguish between those of the coast and those of the 
interior. The riverside Dyaks, who have a strong 
admixture of Malay and a strain of Chinese and Bugis 
blood, were formerly subjects of the Indo-Javanese 
empire, as is proved by the names of their towns and 
rivers, and the existence of a few inconspicuous ruins 
of temples, buried under masses of vegetation and the 
oblivion of generations. They have also had long and 
unbroken relations with the Chinese and Arabs. Partially 
Islamised, at least in name, they form a race less pure 
than the other Dyaks, but more civilised and more 
sedentary, and capable, together with a duplicity often 
acquired by contact with foreigners, of more intelligent 
and energetic application. Their masters in civilisation 
are the Malays, who treat them somewhat as semi- 
savages, but often form alliances with them, recuperating 
their own stock from the vitality of the energetic Dyaks, 
and converting them to Islam. 

The Dyaks of the interior, vitiated by the stifling 
atmosphere of the tropical forest, decimated by small- 
pox, cholera, dysentery, and fevers, lead a nomadic, 
undisciplined existence ; hostile to the foreigner who 
would tempt them to profitable labour, and the enemies 
of all regular and fatiguing work ; and attached, above 
all, to their strange and brutal customs. Although these 
customs vary from tribe to tribe, we may describe 



314 JAVA 

the Dyak in general as clad in a girdle or loin-cloth of 
beaten bark, while the woman wears a short petticoat 
and vest of the same material, or perhaps of cotton stuff. 
Both sexes wear bracelets of bamboo or rattan fibre 
on arms and ankles, to which the women add a collar. 
Both sexes almost invariably wear their long hair twisted 
into a chignon, while the head is covered with a hand- 
kerchief or a length of cotton knotted turban-wise about 
the head ; or in some cases the men wear a kind of cap 
and the women a hat woven of rattan. Certain tribes 
of the interior tattoo the whole or part of the body with 
a variety of designs, according to the sex and the social 
rank of the individual. On such occasions as private or 
public banquets the costume is embellished with bracelets 
of pewter, copper, or beadwork. All have the teeth 
lacquered ; the Olo Ngadju even insert little rivets of 
gold between the blackened teeth. 

The Dyaks would eat little indeed if they had to exist 
upon their few rice-fields, and if nature did not work for 
them. As it is they are much more difficult to satisfy 
in the matter of diet than the majority of semi-civilised 
races, and are greatly given to large banquets, at which 
they conscientiously over-eat themselves, and drink an 
often immoderate quantity of palm-wine or toddy. 
Their diet consists of rice, sago, various vegetables, 
fruits, young shoots of bamboo or rattan, the head of 
the cabbage-palm, and meat and fish, fresh, salted, or 
dried. Salt is their favourite condiment. They chew 
betel and smoke tobacco. 

Their houses, built of wood and elevated on piles, and 
often surrounded by little gardens containing sugar-cane, 
betel, and pimento, are neat and clean. Sometimes the 
whole village — as among certain semi-civilised peoples 
of Indo-China — consists of one immensely long house, 
divided into as many compartments as there are families. 
The village nearly always possesses a communal house, 
raised upon piles like the rest, very large and well built, 
where public deliberations take place. Large banquets 
are held there, and the bachelors and guests of the tribe 










p 

a: 






Q 



BORNEO 315 

make use of it as their dormitory, as with the Bahnars of 
Indo-China. 

The ordinary appliances of life, such as furniture, 
cooking utensils and agricultural implements, are very 
rudimentary among the Dyaks ; but they are great 
lovers of music, dancing, tales and riddles, and, again 
like the Bahnars, they collect metal gongs and certain 
kinds of vessels which may become the homes of 
protecting spirits. 

In the interior they are not great hunters,, but in such 
hunting as they pursue their weapon is the spear or the 
bow ; snares and traps are more commonly used. Their 
favourite game is the deer, whose flesh they dry. They 
are more energetic as fishermen, and their rivers are 
plentifully stocked, while on the coast the celebrated 
trubuk is often encountered in shoals. The Dyaks 
cultivate a little rice and a few sweet potatoes in a very 
primitive manner, and without much enthusiasm ; but 
they feed principally on the products of the forest. 

Marriage among the Dyaks is sometimes exogamic, 
sometimes endogamic ; but although the Dyak woman 
is the object of extreme respect in the tribe and in her 
home, the husband alone is the head of the community ; 
though when he dies the wife may succeed him, inheriting 
his duties and his dignity. Marriages are conducted by 
means of go-betweens, and the prospective husband must 
first give his future parents-in-law a present, even if the 
latter are opposed to the marriage. 

The young people of the tribe are free, from puberty 
onwards, to make their own choice ; but in practice they 
nearly always allow themselves to be guided by their 
parents. 

The birth of twins, as with many peoples of the Far 
East, is regarded as unlucky. 

The Dyaks, who are neither Mahomedans nor 
Christians, practise circumcision and a kind of baptism, 
without any idea of religion attaching to either ceremony. 
They sometimes expose their dead in trees, and some- 
times burn them. Certain tribes of the Upper Kapuas 



316 JAVA 

bury them, and collect the bones in the family tomb 
after the flesh has disappeared. 1 Others hollow out part 
of the trunk of a growing tree, and insert the corpse in 
the hollow. The bark is carefully replaced over the 
opening, and the tree continues to grow and flourish, 
a living tomb, in the literal sense. 

The language of the Dyaks is closely related to the 
other Malayo-Polynesian dialects. They have no alpha- 
bet, no writing, but their psychical concepts are fairly 
definite. The Dyaks of the north are animists ; for them 
everything is haunted by a spirit, a soul, which has the 
power of leaving the living or inanimate object (if we 
may use the word inanimate in this connection), which 
serves it as envelope. It is this straying of the soul 
which in man causes sickness ; or death, if the fugitive 
will not consent to return. 

The Dyaks believe in a supreme, creative god, whose 
name varies with the different tribes ; but they think far 
less of him than of the evil spirits which people all space : 
spirits divided into categories according to their habitat, 
and to whom all moral and physical ills are attributed : 
such as epidemics, death, and the failure of crops. 
Priest-sorcerers (the part may be filled by a woman), 
balians or basirs, propitiate them by sacrifice, and by 
prayers in a special language known as basa sang yang, 
"the tongue of the spirits," which is also employed in 
incantations. 

The Dyaks of the south are shamanists, and equally 
superstitious. The sorcerer is the chief regulator of their 
lives, and often their plague, as is the bojau among the 
Bahnars. 

The Dyaks have earned their regrettable celebrity by 
their barbarous custom of head-hunting. It is now, 
thanks to the efforts of both Dutch and English, 
abandoned in the river districts, but is still extant in 
all its vigour in the central forests. 

No Dyak can become a chief (among the tribes who 
still honour the custom), and no man may take a wife, 
1 The Chams have a similar custom. 



BORNEO 317 

unless he first bring to the village notables one or more 
heads, collected from some neighbouring tribe after a 
dangerous expedition, which may last for several days. 
A father, to win a favourable destiny for a child about to 
be born, will offer the mother the present of a freshly 
severed head. On occasions of especial importance the 
whole tribe, having submitted to the essentially religious 
ordeals of fasting and abstinence, and having undergone 
purification and joined in funeral dances, departs in quest 
of its horrible prize. 

This custom, on account of which the Dyaks were 
formerly accused of cannibalism, is of a definitely 
ritualistic character ; its aim is to obtain the soul of the 
dead man as the protector of the killer and of his village. 
For this reason the heads, being thoroughly dried, 
cleaned, and ornamented with flowers, are the object of 
a regular cult. The Dyaks never forget, when feasting, 
to offer them the tit-bits of every dish, and the customary 
quids of betel-nut, in order to induce them, by such kind 
attentions, to adopt their new tribe. 



V. 

It will be imagined that the presence of such a race 
made the establishment of the Dutch in Borneo a some- 
what unprofitable and far from easy matter, and this for 
many generations. 

As early as 1609 the Company of the East Indies had 
successfully entered into relations with the kingdom of 
Sambas ; later on, with the kingdoms of Mampawa, 
Sukadana, and Bandjermasin. The factories established 
yielded such trifling returns that Daendels had them 
abandoned in 1809 in order to concentrate the entire 
forces of Holland upon the remainder of her spacious 
empire, and especially upon Java. Colonisation was 
resumed only in 1816, when the Government had to 
contend with not only the aims of the English, but with 
the open hostility of the Chinese who had settled on the 
east coast of Borneo near the rich mines of Landak 



318 JAVA 

and Montrado, and had organised themselves into 
confraternities or kongsis (tongs). 

These Chinese kongsis waged a war of defence from 
1853 to 1856. Their defeat gave the Dutch the territory 
of Montrado ; in 1864, having reduced or won over by 
pecuniary advantages the little Principalities of Western 
Borneo, the Dutch had no longer anything to fear upon 
the coast but the depredations of the Dyaks of the 
interior. 

The conquest of the south-east commenced with the 
cession of the Sultanate of Bandjermasin by a series of 
treaties (1817, 1823, 1826) ; but it was a long and difficult 
affair ; more so than the conquest of the west coast, 
owing to the warlike temper of the peoples of Kotaringin 
and Kutei. In 1844 the province was constituted, 
although it was impossible to guarantee it against the 
incursions of unsubjected Dyaks, the intrigues of the 
Chinese, and the piracies of the Bugis and, above all, of 
the Suluans. In 1859 a terrible revolt broke out at the 
mines of Orange-Nassau, then but recently opened ; it 
was subdued only in 1866 ; and further outbreaks were 
followed by two punitive expeditions, in 1870 and 1873. 
Since then the peace of Borneo has been troubled but 
little or not at all. 



VI. 

The Dutch portion of the island is divided into two 
Residencies : that of the west and that of the south and 
east. 

The Residency of the west of Borneo has for capital 
the town of Pontianak (20,989 inhabitants, of whom 223 
are Europeans, 7,085 Chinese, and 212 Arabs), situated 
on the northern branch of the Kapuas, whose wide waters 
glide silently between two lines of virgin foliage. Ponti- 
anak, built upon mud-banks, is a true lacustrean city ; its 
canals and its little bridges uniting mud-banks and 
houses remind one of Venice or of Holland rather than 
the Indies. All the houses, including those of the 



BORNEO 319 

European quarter, are built upon piles ; the palace of the 
Governor himself is founded on arches of masonry, 
through which the river flows. The houses of the 
natives are of wood, roofed with atap or corrugated iron, 
and are grouped together in kampongs. They have a 
poverty-stricken appearance beside the Chinese quarter, 
which is even more remarkable for its neatness and 
cleanliness than for its activity. Its tokos are sheltered by 
long verandahs, which, supported by posts of ironwood, 
line the footpaths and streets. The Chinese kampong is 
the centre of all the important business affairs of the 
town. It is overlooked by a pretty mosque with three 
superimposed roofs, which stands on a little island close 
at hand. The Malay village is busy and animated, but 
less well kept. The palace of the Sultan, at the edge of 
a little bay, is a large building of one story, surrounded 
by a high palisade of ironwood, which is backed by a 
wall of stone. The name alone is palatial. The 
members of the prince's family and the high dignitaries 
of the court live either within the walls of the palace 
enclosure, or beside the kraton. Enthusiasts declare 
that the climate of Pontianak is healthy, and quite 
endurable ; the lack of drinking-water is the one serious 
drawback. 

Pontianak is assured of an enviable economic future 
by the neighbourhood of valuable mines, rather than by 
the meagre industries of the Dyaks or those of the natives 
of a different race. Sambas (12,096 inhabitants), the 
capital of the ancient kingdom of the same name, is still 
prospering, thanks to the exploitation of the neighbour- 
ing gold-mines. The other district capitals are Sanggan, 
Katapang, Nyabang, Kualakakap, and Sintang ; mush- 
room towns of from three hundred to three thousand 
inhabitants. Mampawa (3,389 inhabitants, of whom 1,360 
are Chinese), on the other hand, is a progressive town 
with a future before it ; not because it contains, in a so- 
called palace of clay, a Panenbahan, the relic of bygone 
tyrannies, but because it is the outlet of a rich agricultural 
region, Tajan (1,452 inhabitants), situated on the River 



320 JAVA 

Kapuas at some distance above Pontianak, is another 
town to profit by the proximity of mineral wealth. 

The Residency of the south and east of Borneo 
(Zuider-en-Oostorafdeeling van Borneo) has its capital 
at Bandjermasin z (16,708 inhabitants, of whom 453 
are Europeans, 2,581 Chinese, and 910 Arabs), on the 
beautiful Barito River. Like Pontianak, it has all the 
peculiarities and all the charm of a water-city. Built at 
the confluence of the Barito and the Martapura, on the 
little marshy islet of Titas, its houses, raised on piles, are 
twice a day isolated by the tides ; the people go about in 
praus, which thread the muddy canals, crossed by little 
ironwood bridges, which serve as streets. Bandjer- 
masin, thanks to its fortunate situation, is the centre for all 
the products of the fluvial basin of the Barito : gold-dust, 
coal, wax, rattan, various gums and resins, copra, pepper, 
dried meat, timber for house- and ship-building, baskets, 
mats, and the sea-swallows' nests which are so plentiful 
in the caves of the coast, and which the Chinese buy so 
eagerly. 

Of the district capitals Matapura (9,298 inhabitants) 
was formerly the residence of the Sultans of Bandjer- 
masin ; Kadangan (4,070), Muaratewei, Marabahan, and 
Sampit are towns of little more, and sometimes less than 
three thousand inhabitants. Tanah Grogot, Kualakapues, 
and Kota-Baru are even smaller, and are all awaiting the 
development of the subsoil. Amuntai, thanks to its 
proximity to the gold- and diamond-mines of Nagaru, is 
already a growing town. 

Samarinda, in the east of the Residency, is still more 
prosperous, although it contains only 4,730 inhabitants, 
of whom 1,160 are Chinese. It is built on the delta of 
the Mahakkam, or Kutei, which is there over 1,000 yards 
in width ; it contains a European quarter, a palace, and a 
shadowy Sultan, and Chinese, Malay, Bugi, Dyak, and 
Bandjarese kampongs. The Bandjarese, or natives of 

1 Some authors profess that Bandjermasin contains fifty thousand 
inhabitants, of whom nearly forty-five thousand are natives ; that is, 
Dyaks, Malays, Bugis, &c. The others are the official figures. 



BORNEO 321 

Bandjermasin, have outrivalled even the Chinese in the 
exportation of rubber and rattan. A dirty town of small, 
squat-houses with atap roofs, perched upon piles as 
usual, Samarinda expects, none the less, to become a 
a considerable city, as the coal-mines and petroleum- 
fields in the neighbouring district are now in process 
of development. 

VII. 

Borneo has all the gifts needful to make it one of the 
fairest and richest countries of the globe. Its soil rivals 
that of Java and Sumatra in fertility ; crops of all kinds 
yield abundantly, as may be seen in British Borneo, 
where, thanks to the existence of sufficient labour, the 
soil is covered with rich plantations. 

In Dutch Borneo, vast as the country is, there is a 
serious deficiency of labour. Head-hunting, a birth-rate 
unduly low, and an enormous death-rate, due to small- 
pox, dysentery, cholera, and fevers, leave the population 
of idle Dyaks unchanged ; eight-tenths of the soil is 
virgin ; a little tobacco and pepper is grown, but the 
agricultural yield of the country is practically limited to 
building timber, rubber, a little copra, and a few gums, 
waxes, and resins brought down from the interior by the 
praus that trade up and down the rivers. There are 
practically no industries ; the Malays of the west have 
to obtain from Java or Singapore the raw material for 
the stuffs they weave. 

The subsoil is even richer than the soil ; neither Java 
nor Sumatra can compare with Borneo in the matter of 
mineral wealth. In the basins of the Kapuas, the 
Martapura, and the Kutei, and in some of the islands off 
the coast, gold, silver, lead, copper, antimony, zinc, 
bismuth, platinum, mercury, arsenic, coal, and petroleum 
are found. Diamonds are found in the Nagara district. 
The Sumbar district was celebrated centuries ago for the 
famous Montrado mines, and the sovereigns of the Far 
East used to dispute the possession of the diamonds 
found in the bed of the Martapura, on account of their 

22 



322 JAVA 

perfect limpidity. Although the diamonds have become 
less plentiful and the gold is apparently giving out, there 
are coal-measures and oil-fields, which to our utilitarian 
eyes form a more solid form of wealth. 

The official statistics relating to the profits of agriculture 
in Borneo — where its progress is almost as dilatory and 
elusive as the Dyaks themselves — mention only a few 
piculs of mace and nutmeg ; but the statistics relating to 
the mines of Borneo are highly satisfactory. 

In 1907 the European concessions on the Kutei and at 
Pulu Laut yielded 6,000 and 92,800 tons of coal respec- 
tively ; an amount sensibly larger than in the few 
previous years. Native labour in the west of Borneo 
furnished 18,127 tons, instead of 2,823 as in the preceding 
year. 

The petroleum obtained by the three large companies 
working on the Kutei, of which one is English and two 
Dutch (the Kutei Exploitation Company and the Dor- 
drecht Petroleum Company), amounted in 1907 to close 
on 110,000,000 gallons. 

About 600 lb. of gold, 6,600 lb. of silver, and 700 
carats of diamonds were produced in the same year. 

Transport is facilitated by the fine rivers of Borneo. 
The Royal Mail Steamship Company unites Borneo to 
the rest of the Archipelago and the outer world. A good 
road runs along the coast from Bandjermasin to Sama- 
rinda on the one side and to Sambas on the other. 
When Holland, having at last completed her work of 
pacification in Sumatra, is able to concentrate all her 
efforts upon Borneo, and succeeds in transforming the 
Dyaks into a more civilised and settled population, and 
perhaps in transplanting the surplus population of Java, 
the island will become a most valuable possession, and 
wealthy among all the islands of the Indies. 



CHAPTER XVI 

CELEBES AND ITS DEPENDENCIES 

I. The situation and aspect of Celebes. — II. The physical geography 
of the island; its climate, fauna, and flora. — III. The inhabi- 
tants : Bugis, Macassars, Alfours, Toradjas. — IV. The estab- 
lishment of the Dutch in Celebes. — V. Administrative divisions : 
i. Residency of Celebes and dependencies ; 2. Residency of 
Menado. — VI. The economic outlook and the future of Celebes. 



I. 

Celebes, 1 situated to the south-east of Borneo and 
separated therefrom by the Strait of Macassar, is washed 
on the north by the Sea of Celebes, which divides it from 
the Philippines ; on the south by the Sea of Banda and 
the Sea of Flores, dividing it from the groups of islands 
of the same name. In size it is the third largest island 
of the Archipelago. Its area is roughly 76,360 miles, 

1 The old Portuguese navigators thought Celebes (Selebes) a 
group of islands — a natural mistake, if we consider how the peri- 
phery is cut up into numerous great promontories by deep, tortuous 
gulfs, which have all the appearance of straits — and so gave the 
name the plural form. We find, however, both singular and plural 
forms — Celebe and Celebes — in old narratives. Several explanations 
of this name have been proposed ; for it is unknown to the natives. 
Si Lubeh or Si Labih would mean " the island up above " and might 
be derived from instructions as to the position of the island given 
by the Malays and mistaken for a name : such mistakes are fre- 
quent in geography. According to Skeat (Hobson Jobson, s.v. Celebes), 
the true form of the word would be Pulau (island) Salebih — in some 
dialects Su-lebis or Si-Lebis, Si being there equivalent to a sort of 
article ; and Lebih, Lebis might be the name of a man. The Malays 
call Celebes Tanah Bugis, " the land of the Bugis." 



324 JAVA 

including its dependencies : that is, it is rather more 
than one-third as large as France, and larger than Java, 
though smaller than Sumatra. Its population, however, 
amounts to 851,905 only; a very small figure compared 
with the 30,000,000 of Java. 

Celebes would seem to have been created by nature in 
a capricious moment, such a medley of bold promon- 
tories, jutting peninsulas, curving bays, and deep gulfs 
does its outline present. It has been compared with the 
hand of a gouty patient, a scorpion, a crocodile, and, 
more modestly, with a shrimp ; in any case its coastal 
development is abnormal in comparison with its area, 
for it equals the coasts of Spain and France combined ; 
while the northern peninsula is attached to the southern 
by an isthmus barely 18 miles in width. The whole 
island, some 470 miles in length, has an average width 
of only some 36 to 120 miles. 

Celebes, in short, is composed of four peninsulas, 
connected by means of narrow tracts of land and divided 
by the Bay of Boni on the south, the Bay of Tolo on the 
east, and the Bay of Tomini on the south-east. 



II. 

Celebes is traversed from south to north by a range 
of volcanic mountains ; that range which connects the 
whole East Indian system with the system of Mindanao 
and the Philippines, by means of a host of scattered islets 
of granite, which rise from a profoundly deep sea. This 
long chain pushes out a subsidiary range along the 
peninsula dividing the Bays of Tomini and Boni. The 
northern portion of the island is the more mountainous, 
although the isolated peaks are not so high ; thus Gunung 
Kalabat, at the northern extremity of the range, attains a 
height of 6,560 feet only, while Lompo Batang in the 
extreme south attains a height of 10,000 feet. Although 
the mountains of Celebes have proved their volcanic 
origin by frequent earthquakes, no active volcanoes have 
been observed in either Celebes or Borneo. 




MARKET AT CELEBES. 




SUMATRESE GIRLS AT WORK. 



To face p. 324. 



CELEBES AND ITS DEPENDENCIES 325 

On such narrow tracts of land the rivers have scarcely 
room to develop ; so that although they are sufficiently 
swollen during the rainy season, they are almost without 
exception extremely short. The Bahu Solo, in the 
peninsula between the Gulfs of Boni and Tolo, which 
has its source in Lake Tawuti, is nearly 150 miles long ; 
the Sadang, in the Macassar peninsula, is 250 miles in 
length ; but the Rano-i-Apo in Minehasa, the Poigar, 
Malibagoei, Taludaw, and the Djenemadja are all shorter. 
The whole island is strewn with lakes, the largest of 
which is Tawuti ; but Lakes Tempa or Tamparang, 
Posso, and Lindu are not far inferior in size. All these 
are in the southern portion of Celebes ; but there is in 
the northern peninsula, in the mountains of Minahasa 
at a height of 2,000 feet, a little lake set in a marvellous 
landscape and a waterfall famed through the whole 
Archipelago. This is Lake Tondano. 

The climate of Celebes, like that of Borneo, is extremely 
hot, and less equable than that of Java or Sumatra. The 
difference between the day and the night temperature is 
often as much as 18 Fahr., though the average is less. 
Moreover, the abundant rains, the thunderstorms, and 
the sea-breezes, which reach the slightest eminence in a 
country so completely open to the sea, render the climate 
of Celebes quite endurable and at some seasons even 
agreeable. The climate of Celebes has one great advan- 
tage over that of Borneo : the sloping surface of the island 
allows the rain to run off quickly into the sea, so that there 
are hardly anywhere such marshes as those of Borneo, 
which fill the atmosphere with so noxious a humidity. 
For this reason Celebes, in spite of its heat, has the 
name of being the healthiest of the Dutch East Indies. 

The flora of Celebes, thanks to its maritime situation, 
the fertility of its volcanic soil, and its position under the 
Equator, is as rich and varied as any in the Indies. It is 
as plentiful in the plains as on the mountains ; but its 
character, which is Indian in the western portion, tends 
to the Australian on the eastern slopes. Palms of all sorts, 
camphor-trees, cinnamon, nutmegs, cloves, tree-ferns, and 



326 JAVA 

countless varieties of the most extraordinary orchids are 
found intermingled. The immense forests of the interior 
furnish many kinds of timber. Tobacco and coffee grow 
excellently; in Celebes is found the Antiaris toxicaria 
Lesch., from which upas, a terrible poison, is drawn. 

The fauna of the western portion of Celebes recalls 
that of Borneo and Sumatra, although the tiger and the 
elephant are absent. It includes the buffalo, the wild 
bull, the Celebes boar, which is particularly ferocious, 
many deer, and the last species of monkey to be found 
in the Archipelago. On the eastern slopes of the island 
commence the marsupials which abound in New Guinea 
and Australia. In the north is a special antelope, the 
anuang y or "cow of the woods" (Anoa depressicornis), 1 
whose flesh is eaten almost daily ; and among the 
domestic animals are some excellent little horses. There 
are many birds of dazzling colour — birds of paradise, 
parrots, &c. — and hosts of butterflies ; the latter form 
one of the characteristics of the island.* 



III. 

The inhabitants of Celebes belong to the ethnographic 
and linguistic Malayo-Polynesian group. Despite their 
close relationship to this group, they present very distinct 
differences among themselves, as a result of geographical 
and historical factors ; so that the natives of the north 
and of the south have by certain explorers been regarded 
as different peoples. 

The Macassars, to the number of some 230,000, occupy 
the western portion of the southern peninsula ; the 
Bugis, twice as numerous, and supposed to be im- 
migrants from the kingdom of Boni, inhabit the southern 
portion and the coasts of Celebes. 

The name Alfours is sometimes applied to the inhabi- 

1 Malay, bandogo tutu, sapi utan ; Bugi, anuwang. 

2 The best and most recent description of the island of Celebes is 
that of Paul and Fritz Sarasin, Reisen in Celebes ausgefilhrt in den 
Jahren 1893-18Q6 und 1902-1903 (Wiesbaden, Kreidel, 1905, 2 vols.). 



CELEBES AND ITS DEPENDENCIES 327 

tants of Minahasa in the northern part of the island, and 
sometimes to all the semi-civilised inhabitants, whether 
of Celebes or the Lesser Moluccas and the Sulu Islands. 
For the Mahomedan inhabitants of Celebes all " heathen 
pig-eaters" are Alfours. Finally, the semi-civilised moun- 
taineers of Central Celebes are known as Toradjas ; 
and as this mountainous region is inhabited by people 
of Macassar blood as well as by Bugis, the name of 
Toradja, like that of Alfours, responds to an intellectual 
rather than to an ethnographical difference. 

Bugis and Macassars, despite the affinity of their 
languages with Malay, are physically more like the 
Javanese, except that they are better-looking than the 
latter, especially in the case of the women. They are 
of average height, well built, rather dark in complexion, 
erect and graceful. Both are excellent sailors, as is only 
natural in such a country : shut in by the sea on every 
side, and embracing the great Gulfs of Macassar, Boni, 
Toli, and Tomini, which themselves are again cut up 
into thousands of lessor bays and inlets, creeks, and 
natural harbours, so that the smallest kampong has the 
look of a port or fishing-village. Fishing, the coast trade, 
and even ocean commerce are their usual occupations. 
The Bugis especially are famous traders, as formerly 
they were formidable pirates ; they are expert navigators, 
knowing every corner of the Island seas over a range of 
astonishing width. They do not hesitate to make the 
voyage to Borneo in their praus, and have founded many 
colonies there on the southern and eastern coasts. They 
monopolise the greater part of the trade of those coasts, 
living in well-defended kampongs, united in a rigid 
solidarity. They allow no outside interference in their 
affairs, nor do they take kindly to the foreigner's ideal 
of assisting them to govern themselves. Capable of 
enduring great fatigue, active and laborious, and deter- 
mined to preserve their individuality and their freedom, 
they have the reputation of being undisciplined and 
vindictive ; angered by an insult or an injustice which 
they cannot directly avenge, they too readily draw the 



328 JAVA 

krees and run amok. A proud race, refusing to serve 
the Europeans as domestic servants, they are deplorable 
subordinates. The Dutch, who have often had to fight 
them in order to ensure their possession of Celebes, and 
who know of what their courage and love of indepen- 
dence are capable, enlist them gladly for service in the 
fleet, where they are, so to speak, at home among them- 
selves, or at most the comrades of their close relatives, 
the Malays ; but the Government has almost entirely 
ceased to enlist them in the army, their stubborn tempera- 
ment making them almost impossible to manage. 

It is only just to add that a Dutch colonist who lived 
for many years among them, and considered that he 
knew them thoroughly, declared that they were extremely 
loyal friends, and far less difficult to manage than has 
been professed. He himself, however, could not possibly 
pretend that the Bugis have any immoderate respect for 
the property of others, or that they regard pilfering and 
theft as other than a venial offence. In Baba and Belu 
the young girls marry by preference young men who are 
admitted adepts at this kind of rt sport," and have there- 
fore proved their dexterity of body and mind. 

Formerly they were slightly tinged with Hindu in- 
fluences on the coasts, but to-day they are mostly 
Islamites, and have accepted Islam as fervently as they 
resisted it for some centuries before its introduction. 
They are not, however, patterns of orthodoxy. In many 
districts they still revere the emblems of Shiva, and their 
ancient animism survives in the worship, possibly totem- 
istic, which they render to the crocodile and to certain 
kinds of eel. The Bugis and their princes attribute 
a kind of supernatural power to the royal insignia, which 
in several Bugis Sultanates are of a fetishistic character. 

They obey a host of petty princes, whose tyranny or 
rapacity are to some extent controlled by the pride of 
their subjects. The Bugis women are expert weavers, 
embroiderers, and seamstresses, and can often read and 
speak Malay, which is in general spoken fluently by the 
men. They have, however, like the Macassars, their own 



CELEBES AND ITS DEPENDENCIES 329 

language, alphabet, and literature, which they regard with 
a certain pride ; but their ruling passion is for cock- 
fighting and gambling. 1 

The Toradjas of the mountains and the pagan and 
semi-savage Alfours of the centre of Celebes are mentally 
much inferior to the Bugis and Macassars. Wretched 
enough to begin with, on account of their manner of 
life, they reduce their race still further by the atrocious 
custom of " head-hunting " which with them, as with the 
Dyaks, is a purely ritual ceremony, being described by 
adat in certain determined circumstances, such as the 
death of a chief, &c. The Toradjas of Lake Posso are 
not content with cutting the head, but also drink the 
blood of the victim, eating a portion of his flesh and 
brains. The efforts of the Dutch to suppress this custom 
wherever their influence extends, and the preaching of 
the Gospels and of Islam, the former being well received, 
allows us to hope that this horrible custom will not 
survive much longer. 2 

The Alfours of the Minahasa are far more highly 
civilised than the Toradjas, and even the Bugis. 
Formerly, it is true, they too were head-hunters ; but 
to-day they are a peaceable folk, honest, and energetic, 
and nearly all are Christians. Fairly tall, good-looking, 
light-complexioned, and apparently closely related to the 
Polynesian-Maori race, they agree capitally with the Dutch, 
dress themselves and furnish their houses as far as possible 
like Europeans, and although they have so far found it 
scarcely possible to learn the Dutch language they are 
gradually replacing their local idiom by Malay, the official 
language of the Archipelago. They inhabit the most 
beautiful and most cheerful-looking country in Celebes. 



1 See B. F. Matthes, Einige Eigenthiimlichkeiten in den Festen und 
Gewohnheiten der Makassar en und Buginesen (Leyden, 1884, 8vo). 
Besides this and many other monographs, Matthes has published 
grammars, dictionaries, and anthologies of the Macassar and Bugi 
(Buginesen) tongues and literatures. 

2 Dr. N. Adriani has made a special study of the Toradjas, and his 
books are the chief authority concerning them. 



330 JAVA 

In the administrative department of Celebes are in- 
cluded the small Sangi or Sangin Islands in the north, 
which lie in the route of vessels going from Celebes to 
the Philippines ; the long island called Salejer to the 
south, separated from the Macassar peninsula only by a 
narrow strait ; and still further south, Sumbawa, which is 
a much larger island, entirely volcanic, geologically and 
ethnographically belonging not to Celebes but to Bali 
and Lombok. Sumbawa is remembered for the terrible 
eruption of Timboro (9,000 feet) in 1815, which engulfed 
whole villages and ruined the island. 

IV. 

The Portuguese settled in Macassar in 1625. In 1660 
the Dutch drove them out and replaced them. For a 
long time they were confined to this one point ; it is only 
since the extension of the Dutch Colonial Empire during 
the nineteenth century that the whole island has been 
subjected to their rule. From the south-eastern penin- 
sula they worked up the coast, making alliances with the 
numerous Sultans whose dominions they reached, sup- 
pressing them or winning them over according to circum- 
stances, and always more ready to take the second course 
with these independent seaboard peoples. In other 
regions the Resident or Assistant still confines himself to 
collecting a determined tribute, to prohibiting any act of 
administration which might appear to be directed against 
Holland, or even against Europeans in general, and to 
controlling or suppressing those which seem contrary 
to morality or humanity. In the interior the Dutch move 
slowly and prudently, and the question is less one of 
raising taxes than of accustoming the Toradjas to the 
idea of the foreign master, and of a civilisation in which 
no one collects heads in order to influence destiny. It is 
a curious fact that in Celebes — the one island in which 
the Dutch Government must go slowly and softly in order 
to go forward at all — are the two cities which, more than 
any in the Outer Possessions, recall Holland itself, both 



CELEBES AND ITS DEPENDENCIES 331 

in the outer aspect of the houses and their internal 
arrangement. These cities are Macassar and Menado : 
one in the north, the other in the south. 



V. 

Celebes and its dependencies form two distinct ad- 
ministrative units : (a) the Government of Celebes and 
its dependencies, used (6) the Residency of Menado. 

The little kingdoms of Banggai and Tembuku, 
although geographically part of Celebes, are included in 
the Residency of Ternate. 

The Government of Celebes and its dependencies, 
which includes all the southern portion of the island, 
Salejer (Saleyer), Sumbawa, and its group, has for capital 
Macassar (26,145 inhabitants, of whom 1,060 are Euro- 
peans, 4,672 Chinese, and 141 Arabs). The commercial 
suburb of Vlaardingen, overlooked by Fort Rotterdam, 
consists of a vast, interminable street with European 
warehouses and offices, Chinese tokos, and numerous 
godowns and stores built in the eighteenth century in the 
old Dutch style. This long, throbbing artery is over- 
flowing with life and commercial activity ; men surge and 
hasten along it like corpuscles in the blood. On the 
plein, or public square, are the barracks, many curious old 
houses, the Residency, the Club, and some fine modern 
European dwellings, the note of the whole being one of 
comfort and modern hygiene. 

Near the port live the natives : Macassars, Bugis, and 
Malays ; each in their own kampongs, but on good terms 
with one another. 

The port of Macassar, or Makasser, which has been a 
free port since 1848, is increasing in importance daily, 
and is threatening Singapore with so serious a compe- 
tition that the latter port has been trying to obtain a 
monopoly of copra in particular. Macassar, in 1902, 
exported 350,000 piculs. At this rate its European con- 
signments of copra will soon exceed in quantity, and 
especially in value, those of all British India. If we 



332 JAVA 

compare its trade during the period 1885-9 to that for the 
period 1897-1900 we find an increase of 80 per cent. 

Its exports, besides copra, consist of rattan, oil of 
cajeput, 1 and macassar oil (extracted from the seeds of 
the badu). 2 

The carrying trade is in the hands of the Dutch, 
English, Germans, and Australians. 

Maros (1,493 inhabitants), a district capital, was 
formerly the capital of a kingdom, now reduced to a 
rigid dependency; it still has a nominal Sultan. Bantaeng 
or Bonthain (6,889 inhabitants) owes its growing import- 
ance to its safe roadstead and to the magnificent crops 
produced in the neighbourhood ; Sindjai (3,779 inhabi- 
tants), on the eastern coast of the Macassar peninsula, 
possesses similar advantages ; Takalar (1,593 inhabitants) 
produces first-class sailors, who are gladly enrolled in the 
Dutch fleet. 

Pampanua and Palopo, on the east coast, which the 
explorers P. and F. Sarasin have described as " a little 
Venice in the midst of the mud," are chiefly of political 
significance. 

Almost everywhere the Dutch Government is seeking 
to create new economic centres on which it keeps a tight 
hand, which will slowly replace the ancient " courts " of 
Gowa, Buton, Tanette (where a woman reigns at present), 
and Wadju, which are still sullenly hostile, clinging 
obstinately to the memories of their past importance. 

The most important of these remains of states — the 

1 A volatile oil extracted by the distillation of the leaves of the Mela- 
leuca cajeputi Roxb., which the Malays call the kayu putih, or white 
tree, on account of the white bark which covers it. The oil is liquid, 
volatile, green, transparent, with a strong and agreeable odour. To 
the Chinese and Malays it is a veritable panacea : they give it for 
rheumatism, gout, paralysis, epilepsy, toothache, &c. [It is used 
internally in English medicine in place of eucalyptus, and is often 
useful in cases of gastralgia. — Trans.] 

2 Or bado in Macassar (Malay kusambi, Schleichera trijuga Willd.), 
a tree of the family of sapinacia*. Once used by Europeans for the 
hair, and still so employed by the lower classes, it is the basis of 
various cosmetics, and is used unmixed in the East. 



CELEBES AND ITS DEPENDENCIES 333 

kingdom of Gowa, heritor of part of the ancient and 
well-known kingdom of Boni — has often involved the 
others in its intrigues ; but an expedition in 1904, which 
performed its task in a serious and deliberate fashion, and 
was ably led, has to-day practically pacified all these 
futile revolts and the petty acts of piracy which they 
covered. A few decorations, diplomatically distributed, 
and which are at once an embarrassment and a glory to 
their bearers, have finally ensured tranquillity even in these 
nests of intrigue. 

The district of Salejer, or Saleyer (54,547 inhabitants) 
includes the whole of the island of that name ; it is not 
only the most populous, but one of the most laborious 
and prosperous districts in the whole Residency. 

The Saleyerese, close relatives of the Bugis and the 
Macassars, are, like them, Mahomedans, and excellent 
sailors as well as experienced traders. They carry on a 
large export trade in dried and salt fish, beche de mer, 
copra, Macassar oil, and praus. The coco-palms, which 
grow in a belt round the whole circumference of the 
island, furnish the inhabitants with an inexhaustible 
source of revenue. 

Bima (1,569 inhabitants) is the capital of the district 
including Sumbawa. 

The inhabitants of Sumbawa are Mahomedans on the 
coast; but in the interior they practise an animism full 
of relics of Hinduism, as is proved by the name devas, 
which is applied to all their divinities. They honour 
these last with presents of flowers and fruits. They know 
nothing of human sacrifices, but after a death they burn 
or bury with the corpse a certain portion of the dead man's 
fortune, which his heirs are obliged to leave him, doubt- 
less to assure him of a living in the next world ; and if 
he owns any livestock their throats are cut over his 
grave. 

Formerly Sumbawa was divided into two kingdoms, 
each of some importance. The capital of the western 
kingdom, Sumbawa, was annihilated by the explosion of 
Timboro. Bima, on the other hand, still exists ; its ex- 



334 JAVA 

cellent harbour and its admirable ponies, which the Arabs 
come to buy, ensure a real future for it so soon as the 
timid islanders and the suspicious, petty Sultan decide to 
enter more openly into relations with the Dutch, who at 
present have scarcely penetrated beyond the town and the 
coast. 

The Residency of Menado, in the north of Celebes, is, 
perhaps, more densely populated and more wealthy than 
that of " Celebes and its dependencies/' 

It comprises all the northern portion of the island, and 
is divided into two districts : that of the Minahasa, in the 
north-eastern portion of Celebes, and that of Gorontalo, 
together with the Sangi or Sangir Islands. The capital, 
Menado (10,344 inhabitants, of whom 576 are Europeans, 
2,784 Chinese, and 300 Arabs), is built upon a site that is 
perhaps unique in the world. The town is built around 
a spacious and beautiful natural harbour ; close at the 
back is a magnificent range of mountains. The Euro- 
pean quarter consists of a few vast avenues, planted with 
magnificent trees, and running from the shore towards 
the mountains ; the houses, even the finest, are of wood 
and thatched with atap } so that they have not the 
opulent air of the stone mansions of Batavia or Surabaja, 
but a cheerful freshness, which is the prevailing note 
of the city. The climate of Menado is extremely 
healthy, and the heat is tempered by the sea-breeze, 
so that the nights are cool. Epidemics are very rare 
in Menado. 

The climate, material comfort, and long contact with 
Europeans, have resulted in the cleanest and best kept 
native kampongs in the entire Archipelago ; but the whole 
of Minahasa has the aspect of a flourishing plantation. 
The inhabitants of Menado are content to live by the 
sale of their crops ; all retail commerce being in the hands 
of the Chinese, and the wholesale export and import 
trade in the hands of the Europeans. They not in- 
frequently intermarry with the latter, the women of Mina- 
hasa, like nearly all their race, being handsome, gentle, 
and Christians of some standing, which facilitates these 



CELEBES AND ITS DEPENDENCIES 335 

unions. These intermarriages date from a comparatively 
remote period, for there is a whole quarter in the town 
where the descendants of European merchants, who were 
formerly privileged by the Company, reside ; although 
since then the majority of them have been subjected to 
many further crossings. 

While Macassar owes its importance to its character of 
international produce market, Menado owes its good 
fortune to the fact that it is the point of export for a 
region admirably fertile in coffee, sugar-cane, spices, 
dammar, copra, and rattan. Copra seems destined to be 
the principal source of the wealth of these islands, which 
are still in the dawn of their prosperity, and almost devoid 
of manufactures. 

In 1904 Menado exported 16,104 tons of copra, valued 
at -£201,300 ; about a third of this was exported to Singa- 
pore, and nearly another third went to Marseilles, and 
the rest of France took 3,892 tons ; the remainder was 
taken by Holland, Italy, and Germany. 

Menado still exports a certain amount of native gold : 
1,219 lb. in 1904. In the same year the city's imports 
attained a value of -£241,658, and its exports a value of 
.£446,220. 

Tondano (10,592 inhabitants, of whom 35 are Euro- 
peans and 266 Chinese), the capital of the district of the 
same name, is situated to the north of the beautiful Lake 
of Tondano, at a height of 1,960 feet above the sea. 
Formerly Tondano was built upon piles on the beach of 
the lake : but the Dutch, having had the greatest diffi- 
culty in reducing it, judged it wise to move the town 
inland. To-day Tondano, which is almost entirely 
Christian, is surrounded by magnificent coffee plantations 
and superb forests. It is now so completely loyal to the 
Dutch rule that it was judged practicable to build there 
the school for the sons of native chiefs (School voor zonen 
van Inlandsche hoof den), in which the sons of the notables 
and princes of Celebes and the other Outer Possessions 
may obtain a general and professional education suited 
to their future role. The inhabitants of Tondano are 



336 JAVA 

either agriculturists or fishermen, their lake being full of 
fish of all species. 

Amurang (2,945 inhabitants), built in the centre of a 
beautiful bay on the north-west coast of Celebes, and 
provided with a roadstead which affords safe anchorage 
in all winds and weathers, is extremely picturesque of 
aspect amidst its clumps of coco-palms. The steamers 
of the Koningklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij call at 
Amurang, and since it has had less to fear from the 
incursions of pirates, which were formerly its terror, 
despite a fortress, now in ruins, the town has com- 
menced to revive. 

Gorontalo (6,352 inhabitants, of whom 145 are Euro- 
peans, 666 Chinese, and 327 Arabs), situated at the 
entrance to the great Gulf of Tomini, and at the con- 
fluence of the Boni and Bolango Rivers, is protected by 
Fort Massan and a small garrison. It is the seat of an 
Assistant-Residency. Despite its indifferent anchorage 
its export trade is increasing daily, its trade being 
chiefly in gums, copra, dammar, rattan, wax, dye-woods, 
tortoise-shell, and various sea-shells. The natives are 
nearly all Christians, and thoroughly docile. Unhappily, 
the population increases but slowly, on account of the 
unhealthiness of the site, the town being flooded several 
months in the year, whence constant outbreaks of 
fever. 

Paleleh, although a district capital, has only 3,300 
inhabitants ; Taruna, the capital of the Sangir Islands, has 
6,090, nearly all fishermen ; Donggala, at the extremity 
of the long and narrow bay through which the Palu 
River flows into the Macassar Straits, will be a town of 
considerable importance when the isthmus, here 18 
miles in width, which connects the northern and the 
southern portions of Celebes at this point, is pierced 
by a canal running from Palu to Parigi. When 
this new route enables vessels to go from Macassar 
and Boni to Menado without sailing right round the 
huge island, both praus and larger vessels will flock to 
Donggola. 



CELEBES AND ITS DEPENDENCIES 337 



VI. 

Celebes has all things needful to make it one of the 
most fortunate countries in the Indies : an exceptionally 
fertile soil and a rich subsoil; an excellent climate, bays 
and natural harbours as equally secure and numerous, 
and a vigorous and intelligent race. 

In 1907 the Sumalatei Mine furnished nearly 3 tons 
of silver (6,615 lb.) and 1,170 lb. of gold. At Menado 
the coffee grown by Europeans amounted to 1,411 piculs 
and the coffee grown by natives (" free cultures " — that is, 
of their own initiative) to 3,227 piculs (i,68o cwt. and 
3,860 cwt., or 75 tons and 172 tons), while in the rest of 
Celebes 29 piculs were grown by Europeans and 23,469 
by natives (or 34 cwt. and 28,180 cwt). Moreover, this 
coffee, which created a considerable trade in Macassar, 
the port of exportation to Java, took the first rank in the 
East Indies in point of quality, leaving the coffees of Java 
and Sumatra far behind. 

Menado also produced 14,242 piculs (17,090 cwt.) of 
nutmegs and 1,900 piculs (2,280 cwt.) of mace, while the 
rest of Celebes produced only 5,445 piculs (6,530 cwt.) of 
nutmeg and 1,176 piculs (1,413 cwt.) of mace. 

Besides these results, which the State has succeeded in 
recording, but covered by no statistics, is the produce 
of the greater part of Celebes. The smallest village in 
Celebes drives an active trade in copra, rattan, waxes 
and gums and resins, oils and hides, and (in the case 
of the coast villages) dry fish and salt, beche de mer, and 
tortoise-shell. 

It is enough to recall the fact that Macassar, which 
centralises a large proportion of this trade, though not 
all, exported in 1907 16,030 piculs of coffee (19,230 cwt.), 
76,119 piculs of rattan (91,342 cwt.), 90,949 piculs of 
copra (109,140 cwt.) ; 2,291 piculs of pearl-shell or mother- 
of-pearl (2,739 cwt.), 15,967 piculs of hides (19,160 cwt.), 
7,013 piculs of nutmegs (8,414 cwt.), and 341,393 piculs 
of copra (409,670 cwt.) ; and that a rapid increase has 
been visible in the exportation of all these materials. 

23 



338 JAVA 

For Celebes to become a really rich and prosperous 
country the first necessity is peace. The coasts are 
already practically pacified ; but the country will never 
be completely and finally at peace until the Toradjas 
of the interior renounce their barbarous customs and 
commence to cultivate the soil. The greater part of 
» Celebes is still virgin soil ; peace and order, once estab- 
lished, would enable the natives to break it up for 
cultivation, while the population, decimated by head- 
hunting, would have an opportunity to recuperate itself. 
Such recuperation would be an innovation, and a very 
necessary one, for although there is abundance of fertile 
soil there is a serious lack of labour. There are good 
labourers on the coast, but their numbers are quite 
insufficient. 

Lastly, Celebes has insufficient means of communi- 
cation. There is a good road from Macassar to Boni 
and Maros in the south ; another runs northward from 
Menado to Amurang and Tondano. These roads are 
certainly of great value, but they are as nothing com- 
pared with the area of Celebes. There remains the sea; 
but the windings of the coast make the coasting-trade 
a lengthy and at some seasons a somewhat risky business. 
For this reason, a canal cut through the isthmus of Palu 
would be of inestimable service. 

The reclamation and civilisation of Celebes will be a 
stupendous task, but one that may end in magnificent 
results. Holland has already applied herself vigorously 
to her programme of development. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE MOLUCCAS AND NEW GUINEA 

I. Physical geography of the Moluccas. — II. Their inhabitants. — 
III. The Dutch in the Moluccas. — IV. Administrative divisions : 
(a) The Residency of Ternate and dependencies ; (6) The Resi- 
dency of Amboin. — V. The Residency of the West of New 
Guinea. — VI. The economic future of the Moluccas. 



I. 

On the west the Moluccas ■ are divided from Celebes by 
the Sea of Celebes. Eastward a mass of islands and 
islets, some of which are inhabited, connects them with 
New Guinea. The Philippine Sea washes them on the 
north, and the Sea of Banda on the south, while the Sea 
of Seram divides them into two distinct groups, of which 
the Dutch Government has made two Residencies. The 
Northern Moluccas form the " Residency of Ternate and 
its dependencies," and the Southern Moluccas form the 
" Residency of Amboin." 

The Northern Moluccas, with their dependencies, have 
a total area of some 176,100 square miles, and a popu- 
lation of 108,900 inhabitants. The Southern Moluccas, 
with an area of 19,810 square miles, have a population 
of 299,000. 

1 Little is known as to the origin of the name " Moluccas." The 
Portuguese called these islands the Maluco Islands, believing Maluco 
to be the name of their king as well. As in Arabic — the language 
of Islam, which had reached the Moluccas — the word for king is 
melek (plural muluk), and as each island had a king, old writers 
spoke of the Moluccas as "the Islands of the Kings." 

339 



340 JAVA 

Both groups are essentially volcanic in character. The 
volcanoes of the northern group are far more active than 
those of the southern; the magnificent Mount Ternate, 
sung by the Portuguese poet Camoens, being that most 
subject to eruptions. The Moluccas are the home of 
continual shakings and tremblings of the earth ; the towns 
and villages are often littered with debris, in the midst 
of which the inhabitants are philosophically building new 
houses, neither the old buildings nor the new being 
particularly costly. The highest volcano in the Moluccas 
is on the little island of Tidore ; its summit attains an 
altitude of 5,600 feet. 

In islands of such limited area and irregular outline 
the rivers are naturally hardly worthy of notice. They 
have neither the width nor the length nor the abundance 
of the rivers of Java, Borneo, or Celebes, as, apart from 
their shortness, the rains are not heavy ; yet the streams 
of the Moluccas, especially those of the southern group, 
are at all events numerous enough, and rich enough in 
rapids, falls, and little lakes to fertilise a soil already rich 
in volcanic humus, and to create landscapes of a wild and 
virgin beauty. 

The climate of the Moluccas is much drier than that 
of Borneo ; drier even than that of Celebes. In its 
freedom of perceptible moisture it recalls the climate 
of Australia ; but this dry heat, tempered by the sea- 
breeze, renders the islands extremely healthy. 

The flora, which emphasises the peculiarity of tropical 
vegetation, in that it is far richer in foliage than in 
flowers, although the evidence of the hothouse often 
leads the inhabitant of the temperate zones to imagine 
the contrary, is, on the whole, more characteristic of 
Australia than of India ; but the palm, the nutmeg, and 
the clove abound. 

The fauna, like the flora, is reminiscent of Australia. 
The panther, the tiger, and the elephant are absent ; but 
a number of marsupials occur. The glory of the fauna 
resides in the multitude of birds and butterflies, decked 
in the most brilliant of colours, which seem to vie 



THE MOLUCCAS AND NEW GUINEA 341 

with one another to make one forget the scarcity of 
flowers. 

II. 

Although the total population of the Moluccas x is small, 
it is curiously mixed in character, owing to the isolation 
of its several divisions and the reputation of wealth which 
the islands have enjoyed from of old. The natives, 
obviously of the Malayo-Polynesian race, and forming 
a transitional phase between the Indonesians of Java, 
Sumatra, Borneo, and Celebes and the Papuans of New 
Guinea, have received the general denomination of 
Alfours, although they are not identical with the Alfours 
of Celebes. To say that a tribe of the Moluccas are 
Alfours is equivalent to saying that they are semi-savages. 

These semi-savages present many points of difference, 
accordingly as they are dwellers on the coast or in the 
interior. In the Moluccas of the northern group many 
Malay and Bugis emigrants have settled on the coast, 
notably on Ternate and Tidore. These have inter- 
married with the women of the Alfours, and have 
founded a Mahomedan race of superior civilisation, 
which is found throughout all the lesser Moluccas, in 
Batjan and Kajoa, and on the southern coast of Halma- 
hera. Beside these we must place the " Orang Serani," 
who profess a firm but much adulterated Christianity, 
and assert that they are the descendants of the Portuguese, 
the former masters of the country. These descendants 
of the "whites " are much darker of skin than the Malays 
or the Alfours; 2 but they speak a Malay dialect mixed 
with Portuguese words, pride themselves on a certain 
degree of civilisation, and, in order to mark their noble 
descent, always wear the black clothes and insignia re- 

1 Concerning the Moluccas, see K. Martin's Reisen in den Moluk- 
ken, in Ambon, den Uliassern, Seran und Buru : (a) Eine Schilderung 
von Land und Leuten; (b) Geologischer Theil (Leyden, 1894-1903, 
4 vols., large 8vo). 

2 We observe the same phenomenon in many parts of the world ; 
for instance, among the Portuguese half-breeds of Cambodia, and in 
the Malacca peninsula. 



342 JAVA 

served for chiefs. This does not prevent the majority 
of them from living idle and poverty-stricken lives. 

It is only in the central parts of the islands — and 
especially in the northern part of Halmahera — that we 
find the true Alfours, who have remained animists, and 
whose civilisation is rudimentary. Nevertheless, their 
manners and morals are said to be pure and gentle ; they 
are innocent of the barbarous rite of head-hunting, of 
the custom of enslavement in payment of debt (or at the 
most the slavery is only temporary, being limited to a 
term of ten years, and the debtor does not leave his 
own village, where, considering the solidarity of communal 
village life, it is not likely that his lot can be very hard). 

Marriage is exogamic and patriarchal ; polygamy does 
not exist ; nor may wives and daughters be sold to pay 
the debts of the husband, although the latter may 
become a slave to pay those of his wife. 

The Alfours of Halmahera chiefly worship the spirits 
of evil, whom they seek to conciliate by offerings ; and 
also the souls of their ancestors, whose survival they see 
in all things. They have a custom of slightly chipping 
or cracking any newly bought pots or vessels, which is 
probably observed in honour of their ancestors, with the 
idea of giving them their share. 

We find, among the Alfours, even among those of the 
coast, who are converts to Islam, a singular ordeal, 
which is also practised by the Bahnars of Indo-China, 
in the same manner and in the same circumstances. 
When an Alfour is accused of any crime or offence — the 
offence is usually that of having "sent a doom," of 
having meddled with fate, and thus of having killed a 
fellow-villager — he may obtain an acquittal if he protest 
his innocence while drinking "the water of the sword"; 1 

1 The Kings of Cambodia make all their officials drink "the 
water of oaths " upon assuming office, and also on their birthdays. 
This is consecrated water into which the king's arms have been 
dipped. In theory the perjured functionary should die as the result 
of the draught if he does not intend to keep his promise of fidelity 
as he drinks. 



THE MOLUCCAS AND NEW GUINEA 343 

— that is, water contained in a bowl in which two swords 
have been crossed, a bullet having been thrown in first. 
In the event of perjury the offender will surely die. 

The Alfours of the Southern Moluccas resemble the 
Papuans of New Guinea still more strongly than those 
of the northern group. Between the Alfours of Ceram 
and Amboin there are several strongly marked points of 
difference. 

Amboin (Ambon), owing to the fact that Europeans 
and Malays have been established there for centuries 
on account of its trade in spices, is notable for a much 
higher standard of civilisation and comfort than that 
of the other islands of the Archipelago. In the south of 
the island Christianity is the prevalent religion ; but the 
natives of the northern portion, who have not come 
under its influence, have embraced Islam. 

In Ceram the Alfours of the seaboard are mostly 
Mahomedans, except those who live on that part of the 
island which faces Amboin, which is inhabited by the 
Orang Serani. These natives, who were converted to 
Catholicism by the Portuguese, only to be hustled into 
Protestantism by the Dutch, continue to mingle the two 
forms of religion with a naive and fervent eclecticism, and 
are especially proud of being Christians and "sons of 
whites." In the interior of the island the Alfours have 
remained barbarians, and are warlike and ferocious. 

They do homage to spirits both good and evil, but 
especially to the latter ; and they believe in the existence 
of a creative spirit, with whom they do not greatly con- 
cern themselves. Their priests are of the medicine-man 
type ; their religion consists in a number of superstitious 
practices, very often of a restrictive kind ; it includes 
innumerable " taboos," and also sacrifices and offerings 
which are often entirely out of proportion to the modest 
possessions of the suppliant. The political power con- 
ceded to a few of the hereditary chiefs is inconsider- 
able. 

Marriage, which is rigorously exogamic, and in which 
the woman is definitely adopted by the clan of her 



344 JAVA 

husband, necessitates the purchase of the wife, whose 
children belong to the clan and also to the husband. A 
widow should, if possible, remarry with a friend of the 
deceased, but at all events within the clan. Her fate is 
a happy one, compared with the general fate of other 
women of the Archipelago. Not only is she greatly 
respected by her husband; she is saved the heavy 
physical labour which elsewhere causes barrenness and 
premature old age. Although they hold quarrels, slavery, 
and usury in abomination, the Alfours of central Ceram 
must by no means be regarded as lambs : as witness the 
existence of head-hunting and of the kakehan. The 
kakehan is a secret society which groups the entire male 
population of Ceram about three chiefs, whose prescrip- 
tions they must blindly obey on pain of death. Its 
object is the maintenance of old usages against the 
influence of foreigners, and of Europeans in particular; 
and its members must help and succour one another at 
all times, but especially in time of war. The " cutting 
of heads " as trophies is an act greatly admired by 
members of the league. All affairs concerning religion 
and the social organism are discussed by the members of 
the league met in general assembly, the three chiefs pre- 
siding. Such meetings are held in the communal house 
of the league, which no woman may enter. There also 
they hold their banquets, and perform the ceremonial 
tattooing of warriors. 

This league, as the agent of barbarism and revolt 
against the power of the Dutch, is naturally most care- 
fully watched by the Dutch Government. 1 

In Buru, on the contrary, the Alfours are extremely 
docile. Those on the coast have mixed with the Malays ; 
those of the interior are said to entertain a terror and a 
religious horror of the sea ; in their beautiful teak forests 
and their fertile plains they live a peaceful, agricultural 
life, cultivating their earth-nuts and sago-palms, and 
extracting oil of cajeput. They have a high reputation 
for loyalty and industry. 

1 See T. J. Bezemer, Door Inderlandsch Oost-Indie y p. 600. 



THE MOLUCCAS AND NEW GUINEA 345 

Banka, which suffered so terribly of old from Dutch 
brutality, still owes to Holland the most defective side of 
its social organisation. It retains even to this day a 
group of perkeniers, 1 the descendants, after a period 
of nearly three hundred years, of those to whom the 
brutal Jan Coen distributed extensive holdings after 
having caused or permitted the massacre of numbers of 
inoffensive natives. 

Their veins, at this late period, largely filled with 
native blood as the result of continual " crossing," the 
perkeniers form a kind of superior caste, which holds 
the native in contempt, and in matters of precedence 
ranks immediately below the island's few European 
officials. Next to them come the Christian natives, who 
were always treated as equals by the Company, and 
lastly, the common people ; who, according to all 
observers, are far superior in morality, industrious energy 
and morality to the first two classes. 

III. 

The Southern Moluccas, being "spice islands" par 
excellence 9 were one of the most fruitful conquests of 
Portugal in the sixteenth century ; and one of her pos- 
sessions which Holland sought by all means in her 
power to wrest from the Portuguese at the end of the 
seventeenth century. She succeeded, and gained a 
source of wealth that appeared inexhaustible. For more 
than a century the spices of the Southern Moluccas 
yielded her a profit of 300 per cent. 

The wealth of these islands was also the cause of some 
odious and abominable actions, such as are happily not 
common in her colonial history. To ensure that the 
superabundance of spice-bearing trees in Banda and 

x From the Dutch perkere = " parcels, lots of land." These lots 
were distributed for the first time in 1627 by Jan Coen to various 
persons (perkeniers), who were required to plant them with 
nutmeg-trees, cultivate them, and sell the produce to the Company 
at a rate fixed by the latter. 



346 JAVA 

Amboin should not lower the prices, and in order to 
ensure itself in a systematic manner of the monopoly, 
the Company laid waste all the plantations of Banda and 
a portion of those of Amboin, forbidding the natives 
upon pain of death to preserve or replant them ; and the 
death-penalty was declared also against any native who 
should be found attempting to sell the smallest parcel of 
spices to any foreign trader, who would himself be killed 
if captured. Moreover, agents extirpateurs — literally ex- 
tirpating agents — were maintained in both islands, for 
the purpose of watching the plantations and of limiting 
them in the desired degree. The natives, on the other 
hand, were constrained to devote their time to cultivat- 
ing and gathering the spices for the Company's benefit, 
with the result that they had no leisure to think of their 
own subsistence, and suffered from famine amidst the 
wealth they were producing for others ; whence arose 
natural deceptions, revolts cruelly suppressed, and the 
rapid depopulation of Banda and Amboin. Fortunately 
for these unhappy folk the spice trade was ruined by 
foreign competition, and the Company failed. Finally 
a more equitable government was established, while 
Christianity brought them face to face with a less repug- 
nant aspect of Western civilisation. 

It is by means of Christianity that the greater part of 
these quiet and amiable populations have become the most 
dutiful and even (as in Amboin, for instance) the most 
loyal and affectionate subjects of the Dutch Government. 

Installed in Ternate in 1607, the Dutch had to proceed 
with greater circumspection in the Northern than in the 
Southern Moluccas, on account of the power of the 
Sultan of Ternate. Moreover, the inferior fertility of 
these islands could not ensure them the same enormous 
profits as those derived from the southern group. In 
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the Sultanate of 
Ternate won peculiar renown in Europe, and became 
enormously wealthy, by the sale of spices and by piracy. 
Holland was at first unable to benefit by the one, and 
had always a prime interest in suppressing the other. 



THE MOLUCCAS AND NEW GUINEA 347 

IV 9 

For administrative purposes the Moluccas are now 
divided into two Residencies. 

The Northern Moluccas, to which we must add the 
Obi, and Sula, and Banggai Islands, the numerous 
groups between Halmahera and Dutch New Guinea, and 
the western portion of New 7 Guinea itself, all go to form 
the Residency of Ternate and its dependencies (Ternate 
en Onderhoorigheden). Its capital is Ternate, and it in- 
cludes the districts of Ternate, Labuha, Sanana, Galela, 
Banggai, Sakita, Manokuari, and Fakfak. 

Ternate (Tarnati), the capital of the whole Residency 
and of the district of the same name, a town of 3,616 
inhabitants, of whom 394 are Europeans, 721 Chinese, 
and 286 Arabs, is only the shadow of what it has been. 
It consists of the town proper, with its three wide 
parallel streets, connected by lanes which run between 
the kampongs of the Chinese, the Macassars, and the 
Christian natives, who as such are regarded as freemen 
and burghers (Inlandsche burgers). In these three streets 
are the public buildings ; the Residency, the prison, the 
school, the church, and the Government stores and 
warehouses, all under the shadow of Fort Orange 
(Oranje), which was built in 1717, and still contains a 
small garrison. 

Next to the Macassar quarter are the lands of the 
Sultan, on which all the wealthy and notable natives and 
the princes are required to dwell. The palace itself is 
built on the top of a little hill ; it is a stone building, 
very large and handsome, provided with a verandah 
from which one obtains a splendid view of the sea. 
A wide lawn precedes the flight of thirty-four steps 
which lead up to the palace, which is a remark- 
ably fine building as compared with the present 
decadence of Ternate. The sovereign has his own 
jetty and landing-stage, far removed from the common 
herd ; but the new roadstead, which is so disposed 
as to avoid the fate of the old, which became 



348 JAVA 

blocked with sand, and formerly stretched as far as Fort 
Orange, has its entrance in front of the Residency. 
Despite its past, its healthy climate, and its proximity to 
Celebes and the Philippines, Ternate is visibly decaying ; 
it lives entirely by a purely local trade, principally with 
New Guinea. When the Americans are firmly and 
permanently established in the southern Philippines it 
is possible that a trade will spring up between these 
islands and the Moluccas, and awaken the port to 
renewed activity. 

The district capitals seem to share in the somnolence 
of Ternate. Labuka (7,529 inhabitants) in the island of 
Batjan, despite the presence of a fort — Fort Barneveldt 
— a Protestant church, a native school, and a poverty- 
stricken Sultan, is only a handful of fishermen's kam- 
pongs. The only kampong which exhibits any activity 
or betrays any wealth is of course that of the Chinese. 1 

Tidore (Tidori) is a Sultanate dependent on the 
Residency of Ternate, which includes a number of small 
islands — Matara, Marei, Filonga, Gebe, the Fau and Gag 
Islands, and the western portion of New Guinea as far 
as longitude 141 east of Paris. 

Sanana, capital of the Sula Islands, 2 between Ternate 
and the Gulf of Tolo, is barely alive, despite a fine 
and secure roadstead off the island of Sulabesi. Galela, 
in the large but almost desert island of Halmahera or 
Gilolo,3 has only 198 inhabitants, nearly all Mahomedans, 
who live partly on fish, partly on rice, sago, maize, &c. 

Banggai (Bangaai), containing 1,500 inhabitants, the 
capital of the islands of that name, all of which are 

1 Concerning the Residency of Ternate see F. S. A. de Clercq, 
Bijdragen tot de kennis der residentie Ternate (Ley den, 1890, 8vo). 

2 The Sula Islands consist of a group of three large and a number 
of small islands belonging to the Sultanate of Ternate. The three 
large islands are Taliabu, Mangoli and Sulabesi. Lifumatola is the 
most notable of the smaller islands ; numbers of swallows' nests 
are found there, which are gathered for the Sultan. 

3 Or Djilolo, Djailolo. Gilolo is really the district of the western 
coast of the northern peninsula of the island of Halmahera, but the 
name has been wrongly extended to the entire island. 



THE MOLUCCAS AND NEW GUINEA 349 

inhabited, which is no slight merit in these seas of desert 
islands, and are dependent upon the Sultan of Ternate ; 
Banggai, with its muddy paths, and its wretched wooden 
houses, is a poor village of fishermen and salt-workers. 
A dilapidated mosque and a rajah worthy of the mosque 
are not sufficient to increase its prestige. Sakita or 
Tobungku, on the eastern coast of Celebes, administered 
by a rajah and several chiefs, is the capital of a little 
State which has for a long time been a dependency of 
Ternate; Manokuari (119 inhabitants), and Fakfaks 
(693 inhabitants), both district capitals of Western New 
Guinea, are principally of ethnographical and political 
interest ; their economic value is merely rudimentary. 



V. 

The Residency of Amboin (residentie Amboina), which 
embraces the Moluccas of the South and their depen- 
dencies, is very much wealthier than that of Ternate and 
has very different prospects. It includes the following 
islands : Amboina, 1 Oma (Haruku), Honimoa (Saparua), 
Nusa Laut, Buru, Manipa, Kelang, Boano, Ambelan, 
Ceram, the Banda group, the Aru, Kei, and Tenimber 
Islands, Sera, Bubar, Leti, Moa, Leikor, Kisar, Roma, 
Damar, Wetar, &c. 

Amboin (Ambon), the capital of the Residency and 
of the island of Amboin, 2 contains 8,328 inhabitants, 
of whom 879 are Europeans, 539 Chinese, and 277 
Arabs. The town still feels the benefit of the general 
prosperity which the spice plantations formerly brought 

1 Amboina, the name given to the island by the Portuguese, is 
undoubtedly derived through the Malay embon (embun, amburi), a 
dew or mist, from the native name Nasa Yapoono, " Isle of Mists." 
The Dutch have retained the form Amboina as applying to the 
Residency, while they habitually use the form Ambon in speaking 
of the island and its capital. In Malay the island is known as 
Pulau Embun. 

2 Concerning the mineral wealth of Amboin see R. D. M. 
Verbeek's Descriptive giologique de Tile d! Ambon (Batavia, 1905, 
8vo, illustr., separate plates and atlas). 



350 JAVA 

to all ; in some quarters the houses of the natives, and 
especially those of the chiefs, are as spacious and as well 
furnished and decorated as ever, and the garments of 
both men and women, and their numerous trinkets of 
gold and silver, are visible proofs of an easy and com- 
fortable existence. 

Christianity, which is very general, has given the 
Amboinese a degree of civilisation greatly superior to 
that of the rest of the Moluccas. The climate is very 
healthy ; the town, situated between Wai Tomo and Wai 
Gad j ah, is of regular formation, clean, and a delight to 
the eyes. It is overlooked by the Nieuw- Victoria fort, 
which is built on the shore, and which protects the 
barracks and a considerable garrison; for Amboin is 
the seat of the military command of the Moluccas. 
The houses and offices of the Europeans are to the 
east and south of the port ; near by is a fine Residency, 
the club, the church, the orphan asylum, the schools, 
and the prison. The native kampongs are distributed 
with less regularity, being scattered in almost all direc- 
tions, although most are built fronting on the river. 
Amboin has been a free port since 1854. 

Saparua (2,354 inhabitants, of whom 299 are Europeans) 
situated on one of the islands in the Banda Sea, is a busy 
port protected by a small garrison, for in 1817 it was the 
theatre of a desperate and bloody revolt against the 
Dutch power. Since then Saparua has been completely 
pacified, and appears to be particularly loyal to Holland. 
Kajuli (526 inhabitants), and Tifu or Masaretei (543 
inhabitants) are two district capitals on the island of 
Buru. Banda-Neira (4,130 inhabitants, of whom 677 
are European and 306 Arab — there are only a few 
Chinese), whose name wakes the memory of the Portu- 
guese, and the capital of the Banda group, is built on 
a site of marvellous beauty, which is often enhanced 
by the curious phenomenon of the Sea of Milk, a tract 
of water some miles from the shore, which at certain 
seasons covers the waves with a milk-white phosphor- 
esence, due to the presence of myriads of tiny organisms, 



THE MOLUCCAS AND NEW GUINEA 351 

Banda was the first of the Moluccas to have dealings 
with the Dutch (in 1599) ; and although it suffered 
greatly in consequence, it seems to have forgotten the 
past to-day. 

Wahaai or Orang (2,850 inhabitants) in the island of 
Ceram or Serang is situated to the east of the Bay of 
Sawai. It possesses a small redoubt and a garrison. 
Tual (802 inhabitants), the capital of the Ewab or Kei 
Islands, is in a state of gradual development, thanks to 
the exportation, by Europeans, of building timber and 
ornamental hardwoods. 

It has seemed best to attach the Residency of the 
South of New Guinea (Zuid - Nieuw - Guinea) to the 
Moluccas. The capital is Merauke (487 inhabitants); 
a place of no interest save to the ethnologist. 

VI. 

To sum up : except for spices and the plumage of 
the birds, 1 which are exported solely to Europe, the 
latter being in great demand on the French market in 
particular, and the subject of a long-established trade, 
the Moluccas have hitherto lived upon purely local 
resources : fish, swallows' nests, trepang, tortoise-shell, 
various kinds of hardwood, sago, &c. Is the trade of 
these islands capable of expansion, and is it possible to 
improve the economic conditions of these islands ? 
The reply should perhaps be different, accordingly as 
we consider the northern or the southern group. 

The Northern Moluccas, sparsely populated and insuffi- 
ciently cultivated, have no prospects worth mentioning, 
except that once an active and regular trade has been 
built up between Celebes and the pacified Philippines 
they may serve as a point of call, and may themselves 
take part in that trade. The Southern Moluccas, on 
the contrary, being better organised, more densely 

1 SeeT. Forest, senr. : Contribution's ornithologiques de la Nouvelle- 
Guinee ou Paponasie a V Industrie de la mode in the Revue des Sciences 
naiurelles ei appiiquees (Paris, 1894, 8vo). 



352 JAVA 

populated, and favoured with a better climate and a 
more fertile soil, may well enrich themselves further 
by the cultivation of spices, which at several points is 
now being undertaken by private individuals or com- 
panies, and the still more profitable cultivation of coffee. 
It is greatly to be desired that the natives should be 
awakened from their indolence by the public or private 
activity of the European planters. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

TIMOR AND ITS DEPENDENCIES— BALI AND LOMBOK 

I. The physical aspect of Timor and the character of its inhabi- 
tants. — II. The dependencies of Timor : Flores, Solor, Alor, 
Sawu, Sumba. — III. Administrative divisions of Timor and 
its dependencies. — IV. Bali : the island and its people. — V. 
Lombok : the island and its people. — VI. The establishment 
of the Dutch power in Bali and Lombok : the administrative 
divisions, and the future of the Residency. 



I. 

Celebes, the Moluccas, Dutch New Guinea and Borneo 
lie on the arc of a vast circle, one extremity of which, 
if produced, would pass through the centre of Sumatra. 
On another such arc, intersecting the former and of 
greater curvature, lie Sumatra, Java, and Dutch New 
Guinea ; and on that portion of the arc between Java 
and New Guinea lie Timor and its dependencies, the 
Flores group, Bali, and Lombok. 

The Residency of Timor and its dependencies (Timor 
en Onderhoorigheden) is divided into three districts : — 

(a) Timor consists of the Dutch portion of the island 
of Timor, Alor, Sawu, Roti, and Semaru, and is divided 
into six sub-districts : — 

i. West Timor, capital Kupang, and the islands 
Semau, Kera, Kambing Dilha, Tabuin, Burung, and 
Tikus; 2. Central Timor; 3. Belu; 4. Alor or Ombai, 
with the Pandai or Pantar Islands ; 5. Sawu (Savu) 
and the small surrounding Islands ; 6. Roti and the 
adjacent islands, 

24 353 



354 JAVA 

(6) Sumba (Tjendana — in Sanscrit chandana = 
"santal"), or Santal- or Sendal- or Sandal- wood Island 
(Sandelhout-Eiland). 

(c) Flores, with the Adunara, Solor and Lomblem 
(Kawula) Islands. 

With the exception of those to the east, these islands 
are commonly known as the Lesser Sunda Islands. 1 

Timor, or rather the western and most important 
portion of the island, has long been a bone of contention 
between Portugal and Holland. Holland, desirous of 
feeling herself mistress in her own house, after having 
consented to the greatest sacrifices that she might obtain 
the retirement of England from the Dutch Empire, 
made on several occasions the most tempting offers to 
the Portuguese, seeking to induce them to relinquish 
the portion of Timor which they retained. She was 
finally obliged to content herself with the treaty of 
delimitation signed in 1899, which put an end to dis- 
putes, until then incessant, as to the frontier. 2 Of a 
total area of 11,230 square miles, supporting some 
700,000 inhabitants, Holland obtained less than one- 
half of the territory — namely, 5,174 square miles — and 
about one-half of the inhabitants, with its dependencies, 
Dutch Timor has an area of about 18,000 square miles, 
and a population of 308,600 souls, of whom 249 are 
Europeans, and 1,568 Chinese, 

* Sunda is a geographical name, and does not signify " sound." 
9 A region concerning which all ethnographical and sociological 
information was wanting, the Portuguese portion of Timor is at the 
present moment the object of a searching inquiry. This has been 
undertaken by order of the Governor and at the suggestion of 
Senhor Osorio de Castro, President of the Civil Court of Dilli, 
who has undertaken the distribution of a series of questions, 
principally of a juridical or sociological nature. Senhor de Castro 
has also just published a most curious and interesting book, Flores 
de Coral (Dilli, 1910, 8vo), a collection of poems, the Indonesian 
terms and local allusions being explained in long notes full of 
novel information due to personal observation. Such activity is 
an excellent symptom, and we may hope that Portuguese Timor 
will soon be as well known as the Dutch portion of the island. 



TIMOR AND ITS DEPENDENCIES 355 

The island runs north-east by east and south-west 
by west, and is traversed by a range of mountains, which 
is wider on the Portuguese territory than in the western 
portion of the island. The highest summit in the island 
is 8,300 feet high ; the highest in the Dutch portion is 
5,600 feet. 

The streams of Timor are numerous and abundant ; 
but during the period of the eastern monsoon — that is, 
from May to October — they are liable to dry up almost 
completely. The landscape, until then laughing and 
verdant, takes on a shrivelled and yellowish aspect that 
is positively painful to see. But the beneficent western 
monsoon, which blows from November to April, makes 
all things quicken and put on their livery of green as 
by enchantment ; and the natives, who await this 
renewal of vital forces in condition comparable to that 
of their forests, greet it with cries of delight and honour 
it by festivities. 

As a result of the desiccating, almost Australian climate 
of the dry monsoon, the climate and the seasons of 
Timor are infinitely more definite in their changes than 
those of Java, Sumatra, or Borneo, and some people 
are scarcely able to endure the dry and healthy yet 
excessive heat. 

The fauna and flora of Timor recall Australia, resem- 
bling those of India hardly at all ; the species are small, 
the forms grotesque. Timor possesses no elephant, no 
tiger, no wild cattle (60s sondiacus or banteng), and only 
one variety of monkey ; but there are hosts of enormous 
bats, some dangerous snakes, and crocodiles, which are 
revered by the natives, at least in Kupang, the capital of 
Dutch Timor. 

The Roti archipelago, capital Baa, presents similar 
physical characteristics. Little is known even to-day of 
the inhabitants of Timor ; the long disputes between 
Portugal and Holland permitted them, between the two 
adversaries, to contrive to an almost complete inde- 
pendence, which their warlike nature has enabled them 
in a great measure to retain to this day. As far as we 



356 JAVA 

can judge they are Malay o-Polynesians, with frequent 
admixtures of Papuan blood, so that in type and culture 
they approximate to the Dyaks of Borneo. They are 
divided into a host of tribes, which on account of certain 
ethnological peculiarities, and their own statements, have 
often been regarded as peoples of different origin ; but 
they are now by general agreement divided into the 
Timorese (Atoni Timor), who inhabit the south-west of 
the island ; the Belonese (Ema Belo) of the centre and 
east of Timor, and the Kupangs (Atuli Kupang), who 
are settled in the ancient kingdom of Kupang and in the 
island Semau (Samao, Samau, Samauw). The largest 
group, that of the Belonese, claim to have come from the 
Moluccas. Many are to-day Christians, at least in name, 
and a certain number are Mahomedans ; but in the 
interior they remain animists worshipping the Sun and 
the Moon his wife, and paying homage to certain trees 
and rocks, and to the souls of the dead, whom they 
greatly fear. A little grove or thicket near the village 
conceals the protecting god, with whom only the 
sorcerer-priest dares to hold speech. 

Extremely superstitious, the Timorese spend a great 
deal in sacrifices to the divinities, these sacrifices includ- 
ing living animals ; and they fetter their whole lives with 
a host of prohibitive measures analogous to the Poly- 
nesian tapu or taboo. 

Nearly all the Timorese tattoo themselves and file the 
teeth. Although independent to a fault, they recognise 
almost everywhere the authority of a hereditary chief of 
divine origin, who is regarded as immortal : he does not 
die, but sleeps. His corpse is often exposed on the 
branches of a tree in an open coffin ; or the wives of the 
deceased chief will keep his body, during the period of 
putrefaction, in a kneeling position ; and only when the 
flesh has decayed and the remains are reduced to a 
mummified condition are they buried, facing the Sun, 
the chiefs "father." With the chief are buried a 
portion of his goods and his clothing : formerly the 
mourners would cut the throats of several of his slaves 



TIMOR AND ITS DEPENDENCIES 357 

above his tomb, so that he should not go unattended in 
the land of dreams ; but to-day he has to content him- 
self with a dog as companion and guide. After the 
dead man has been covered with honours and presents, 
there is no precaution which the mourners will not take 
to avoid awakening the soul of the sleeper, and to prevent 
his returning to his old home, there to wander about and 
torment the living who inhabit it. 

During the long disputes between the Dutch and the 
Portuguese on the subject of Timor and the surrounding 
archipelagoes, the natives were constantly encouraged by 
the one party to resist the other, with the result that 
European influence and European rule have but a feeble 
foothold on Timor. The whole island is shared between 
a host of petty rajahs, turbulent and insular, hating 
strangers ; and the Christians are by no means the least 
hostile. Especially is this true of the " black Christians/' 
the descendants of Portuguese half-breeds, whose pride 
in their noble origin and their Western creed has often 
the result of making them as intractable as they are 
treacherous. Yet while Portugal, should she persist, out 
of a comprehensible pride in her brilliant past, in remain- 
ing in Timor, has neither the necessary resources nor any 
genuine desire to put her colony in order, the Dutch 
have been at work for some years on their portion of 
the island ; creating wealth by reclaiming the soil, 
ensuring the obedience of her vassals, and suppressing 
the slave-trade in all directions. Although the Dutch 
portion of Timor has a less fertile soil than the northern 
portion, the Dutch are slowly transforming their portion 
of the island into a magnificent plantation of coffee, 
tobacco, and sugar-cane. 

II. 

The Flores, Solor and Alor groups, all of volcanic 
origin and full of smoking or extinct volcanoes, are 
strung out between Timor and Sumba, with the Sea of 
Flores on the one hand and the Sea of Sumba on the 



358 JAVA 

other. These islands also were the object of disputes 
between Portugal and Holland until 1859, when they 
finally fell to Holland. Their populations, analogous to 
those of Timor and Sumba, but crossed on the coasts 
with Malay and Bugis blood, are partly Christian, partly 
Mahomedan, partly animist. Closed to all Europeans 
while the Company was still in power, lest passing vessels 
should take up cargoes of the wild cinnamon which 
abounds there, and which might compete with the culti- 
vated product of the Company, and then, like so many 
shuttlecocks, tossed between Portugal and Holland — a 
fate which for some time delivered them from either — 
these groups of islands have formed a section of the East 
Indies which is one of the least civilised and least known 
of all. 

Sumbawa, to the south of Flores and west of Timor, 
and Sumba, or Sandal-wood Island, are scarcely better 
known. In both these islands, however, and in the 
physical aspect of their inhabitants, there are visible 
traces of a Hindu occupation, although the natives have 
long since fallen back into animism ; but an animism 
free from the barbarous practices to be found elsewhere. 

Timor, first colonised by ir vaders from Ternate, 
remained subject to the latter until the coming of the 
Portuguese in 1520. The Dutch arrived in 1613. 

III. 

To-day the Dutch portion of Timor and its depen- 
dencies forms a Residency whose capital is Kupang (3,773 
inhabitants, including 106 Europeans, 468 Chinese, and 
178 Arabs). Built facing on a fine anchorage, it would 
be an extremely agreeable town were it not for the 
torrid and unhealthy climate. It contains a well-built 
fort and a considerable garrison, for the rajahs of Kupang, 
secretly excited by the Portuguese, formerly gave the 
Dutch considerable trouble, so that at one time the 
Government had no less than 14,000 troops in the island. 

These rajahs profess to be related to the crocodiles 



BALI AND LOMBOK 359 

which infest the shores of the islands ; and it is said that 
they formerly used to strengthen their family ties by a 
curious ceremony. Whenever one of them ascended 
the throne his subjects used to throw themselves into the 
water to do homage to the king's relatives, and the first 
crocodile to emerge, and thus to admit the relationship, 
received as a reward a wife, in the shape of a richly 
dressed virgin, whom he promptly devoured. 

To-day Kupang is occupied chiefly in exporting coffee, 
sandal-wood, horses, fruits, pearl-shells, sharks' fins, 
trepang, swallows' nests, and tortoise-shell. 

Baa (Baa, Namuda, or Namudale), containing 1,083 
inhabitants, on the island of Roti, is the capital of the 
district formed by that island. It carries on a small 
export trade in fish, wood, and wax. 

Waingapu (11,069 inhabitants), the capital of a district 
including Sumba and Sawu, which formerly prospered 
largely by the slave-trade which the Dutch have sup- 
pressed, exports little to-day but excellent horses and 
sandal-wood, although the precious sandal-tree has dis- 
appeared from the coasts, and is now found only in the 
interior of the island of Sumba. 

Larantuka, the capital of the district of Flores, Solor, 
and Alor (4,663 inhabitants), is in continual touch with 
Celebes, whence it imports all its manufactured goods ; 
sending in return fish, tortoise-shell, and cinnamon, in 
place of the numerous slaves which it used to furnish, 
and by so doing largely depopulated itself and the 
surrounding islands. 

The future of the Residency of Timor depends entirely 
upon its effective pacification and submission, which will 
allow the Dutch to reclaim the soil. The soil of Timor 
in particular is noted for its fertility even in the Indies. 

IV. 

With the Residency of Bali and Lombok we return to 
the heart of the Indo-Javanese civilisation, and it is not 
only by reason of the similitude of its geological structure 



360 JAVA 

and its orientation that Bali, in particular, has earned 
the name of Little Java. 

The two islands are almost equal in size, and their 
joint area amounts to 4,050 square miles, or slightly 
more according to some. Their joint population 
amounts to 525,565, including 119 Europeans, 1,807 
Chinese, and 143 Arabs. The last census betrays a 
regrettable depopulation, similar to that which some 
twelve years ago affected all the East Indies excepting 
Java. In 1900, in fact, the inhabitants of Bali and 
Lombok numbered 1,039,300. 1 

Bali, separated from Java by the narrow Strait of Bali, 
is, like the larger island, essentially volcanic in character. 
Its highest peaks are Tabanan (7,500 feet), the base of 
which is pitted with little lakes ; Gunung Agung, or the 
Peak of Bali (10,400 feet, and Batur (7,350 feet). 

The coast, full of inlets, but bristling with reefs and 
shoals, is unsafe and even inaccessible for a portion 
of the year. Temukus is the only port which can be 
entered and left at any state of the tide and at any time 
of the year. 

The streams, plentiful though they are, have no time, 
within the limits of Bali, to attain any useful amplitude, 
especially as a great part of the surface of Bali is occu- 
pied by the mountains. The climate is that of eastern 
Java : hot but healthy, excepting on the south coast, 
where the swamps of the coast are reeking with fevers. 

On this account, and because of the absolute contempt 
of hygiene manifested by the inhabitants, Bali has for 
years been the prey of periodical epidemics of cholera 
and smallpox, which are at last diminishing, owing to 
the measures taken by the Dutch Government. 

1 Concerning Bali and Lombok see W. O. J. Nieuwenkamp, Bali en 
Lombok, Uitvoerige geillustreerde reisherinneringen en studies omtrent 
land en volk, kunst en kunstnijverheid (Edam, 1906, 4to). — R. Friederich, 
" An Account of the Island of Bali," in " Miscellaneous Papers re- 
lating to Indo-China and the Malay Archipelago," Second series, 
vol. ii., pp. 69-200 (London, 1887, 2 vols., 8vo). — J. H. van Balen, 
Lombok, Landen Volk (Helder, 1894, ^ v0 )- — J- J- Ten Have, Het 
eiland Lombok en zijne bewoners (The Hague, 1894, 8vo). 




< 

03 



« 
O 






BALI AND LOMBOK 361 

The flora and fauna of Bali are closely related to those 
of Java, and, like the latter, are half Indian, half Australian 
in character. 

The island, thanks to the fertility of its soil and the 
frequent rains, has the aspect of a gigantic bouquet of 
verdure. There is, however, a lack or a scarcity of the 
larger forest trees ; and although the teak-tree itself is 
present, Bali is obliged to import timber for constructive 
purposes. In compensation, the coco-palm, the origin 
< of the preparation known as copra, and the lontar-palm 
are abundant. 

The fauna is not so rich as that of Java : the rhinoceros 
and banteng no longer exist, but numbers of tigers roam 
the west and centre of the island ; and the forests conceal 
many wild cats, and the musk-bearing chevrotain. The 
domestic animals — buffalo, wild cattle, horses, goats, 
pigs, &c. — are the same as in Java. 

The chief interest of Bali is archaeological, and resides 
in the character of the inhabitants and their obstinate 
attachment to Hinduism after the lapse of centuries. 

All efforts to convert them to Christianity or to Islam 
have hitherto failed, except among the very lowest classes, 
who are regarded as belonging to inferior races. 

Bali, it seems, must have been visited at a very early 
period by the Hindus, who settled there and remained 
under the suzerainty of their compatriots at Madjapahit. 
Even to-day the majority of the Balinese proudly entitle 
themselves Wong Madjapahit (men of Madjapahit), in 
order to distinguish themselves from the Bali-aga or 
indigenous Balinese, who are dispersed over almost the 
whole of the island, and have not been subjected to 
Hindu influence. 

After the fall of Madjapahit the element which had 
been converted to Hinduism, reinforced by the refugees 
from the Hindu empire, became still more arrogant and 
insular. To-day the population consists of the Wong 
Madjapahit, descendants of the aborigines and the Indo- 
Javanese colonists who profess Hinduism ; the Bali-aga, 
aborigines of a purer blood who have remained pagans, 



362 JAVA 

and on the coast the Balislam, natives crossed with 
Javanese and Madurese and converted to Islam, 

Physically f the Wong Madjapahit are the finest and 
most handsome of these peoples. At once more robust 
and more slenderly built than the Javanese, whom they 
very closely resemble, they are also lighter in colour, and 
their eyes are keener ; they have long arms and very 
narrow feet. 

From the social point of view we find that Hinduism 
has endowed them with the oppressive caste system ; a 
system which, in all that concerns people of Brahministic 
descent, is pitiless in its determination to maintain the 
purity of caste. But lately, if a Brahmin's daughter 
took a lover of inferior caste, she was put to death, and 
the lover, being sewn into a sack, was cast into the sea. 
The Dutch, wherever their authority reaches, have 
caused the substitution of banishment for this cruel 
punishment. They also prohibited sati or suttee; but 
when a prince or a Brahmin dies the family of his wife 
or wives move heaven and earth to evade the law, so that 
the wretched widows may enjoy the glory of burning 
themselves to death upon their husband's corpse. 

Despite these practices, and a proud, bellicose temper, 
only too often excited to madness by the abuse of hemp 
{Cannabis indica), the Balinese are tolerant : they allow 
the lower classes to adopt Christianity or Islam, and the 
fact that they permit Brahmins to marry women of 
inferior caste without depriving the children of such a 
marriage of the caste of the father, is leading to a 
gradual levelling of social differences. 

Externally the Balinese betray their Hinduism by 
abundant prayers and fasts of purification ; by their 
respect for cow-dung and the five products of the cow, 
and their horror of beef and buffalo-meat. The only 
meat they eat is pork. Although they are Brahminists, 
and some even Buddhists, and although they erect 
effigies of the gods of the Hindu pantheon in their 
temples, it would be an exaggeration to speak of the 
Balinese as pure Hindus. Their religion is grafted on 



BALI AND LOMBOK 363 

the animistic superstitions of the Malayo-Polynesian 
race, which are constantly showing through the newer 
cult, and which really form, under the Hindu ritual, 
their clearest and most definite beliefs. 

Of the Hindu trinity, Shiva, with his sakti (wife or 
energy) Durga has become the supreme divinity of Bali : 
they have effaced Vishnu, Brahma, and their wives. 
Shiva, in the shape of Mahadeva, has his seat upon 
Gunung Agung, the highest summit of the island. 
Durga, in the capacity of a goddess whom the Hindus 
call Uma, "the Gracious/' dwells in the Lake of Batur, 
at the foot of Mount Batur ; whence her alternative 
name, Devi Danu, the Lady of the Lake ; but as Kali 
and the goddess of death the Balinese represent her as 
a monstrous and hideous female ; but she is chiefly 
honoured as the virgin Devi Seri — the goddess of agri- 
culture — the Cri of the Hindus ; the Ceres or Demeter 
of the Greeks and Romans. Agricultural rites, moreover, 
hold the most prominent place in the Balinese cult. 
The representations of Devi Seri in effigies of Chinese 
coins or kepengs sewn together are extremely popular. 
The old Polynesian gods or rabut sedana, to whom the 
Hindu gods are in reality everywhere subordinated, are 
also represented in the same way. All the temples have 
their special rabut sedana, not counting those reserved 
for Kali. At the back of the sanctuary a little house 
surmounted by from three to a dozen superimposed 
roofs, which is known as the Meru Mountain, shelters a 
couple of gods in kepengs ; and the statues of the Hindu 
divinities, which are placed in the body of the temple, 
serve as guardians or rakshasas. 

With the exception of Batara Baya (the Hindu Vayu) 
in whose honour some temples have been erected along 
the coast, the secondary gods of the Hindu pantheon are 
no longer the object of a special cult in Bali. Their 
statues are often encountered, but the people who give 
to all the general title of togog no longer distinguish their 
several characters. They hold by the rabut sedana 
guarded by Shiva, and the temples of the dead dedicated 



364 JAVA 

to Kali and Devi Seri the goddesses of the harvest, which 
are all that remain to them of their double past. 1 



V. 

Lombok, the country of the Sasaks, to the east of Bali, 
from which it is separated by the Straits of Lombok, is 
less known than Bali, although it has been under the 
political domination of the latter since the eighteenth 
century. 

Lombok, volcanic and mountainous like its neighbour, 
possesses in Rendjani or the Peak of Lombok (12,290 
feet) one of the most lofty and magnificent summits in 
all the Indies. The streams are as small as those of Bali, 
but so numerous that the eastern plains, where rice and 
coffee are the principal crops, are marvellously fertile. 
The climate recalls that of Bali ; the fauna and flora are 
more Australian than Indian. 

The inhabitants of Lombok, the Sasaks, are all 
Mahomedans. They are not particularly fervent, nor 
have they many mosques ; their religion consists 
principally in their being circumcised and refusing to eat 
pork. They eat no meat but beef : unlike their neighbours 
the Balinese, to whom the eating of beef would be 
sacrilege. The thousands of Balinese who have estab- 
lished their supremacy in Lombok and form the conquer- 
ing caste treat their Sasak subjects with the most arrogant 
contempt. 

The Balinese Rajah of Lombok reigns over a small 
portion of Bali also : namely, over the Government of 
Karangasem. He delegates his powers to a viceroy 
chosen from his own family. 

The possessor of a capital little army, and an intelligent 
but extremely despotic ruler, the old sovereign of 
Lombok, who died only two years ago, was a very 

1 See C. M. Pleyte, Pantheon hindou-balinois in the Exposition 
universelle Internationale de 1900 a Paris. Guide a travers la section 
des Indes Neerlandaises. Groupe xvii. (Colonisation), pp. 223-4. (The 
Hague, 1900, 8vo.) 



BALI AND LOMBOK 365 

distinguished Asiatic sovereign. Thanks to a system 
of severe repression order reigned throughout all his 
possessions ; theft and adultery were punished by death, 
and the use of opium and games of chance by the 
bastinado. The Dutch Government alone was able to 
qualify his autocracy, without jeopardising such results 
of his policy as were of value. 

VI. 

Bali and Lombok were discovered in 1597, by the 
brothers Houtman ; but the extremely warlike nature of 
the inhabitants made their conquest a matter of great 
difficulty . Only in 1743 did the Susuhunan of Surakarta 
cede his rights in Bali to the Dutch ; but the island did 
not recognise the sovereignty of Holland until nearly a 
century later — in 1841 ; and dangerous rebellion neces- 
sitated lengthy military expeditions in the years 1846, 
1848, and 1849. Even as lately as 1 890-1 894 the Dutch 
had to content themselves with the direct administration 
of the two Balinese provinces nearest to Java : namely, 
that of Djembrana and that of Buleleng or Singaradja. 
Over the other provinces — Bangli, Mengwi, Badung, 
Giaujar, Klunkung, Kerangasem — the Dutch had only 
a moral and little more than nominal influence. These 
provinces were governed by an alliance of rajahs who 
were absolute monarchs in their own dominions, 
and ready at a moment's notice to begin hostilities in 
the shape of an irregular campaign, a war of ambuscades 
and surprises, exceedingly dangerous to European 
troops on unknown ground, especially in a country 
infested with fever and covered by dense and treacherous 
vegetation. 

The position of the Dutch in Lombok was no better. 
The arrogant Balinese, who forbade their subject Sasaks 
the right to bestride a horse upon their native island, 
looked with the blackest disfavour upon the irruption of 
powerful foreigners. The Dutch advanced prudently and 
adroitly, profiting by the complaints of the oppressed 



366 JAVA 

Sasaks or the lower-caste Balinese, and at need enforcing 
their representations by long and bloody campaigns. 

In 1894 the military power of the princes of Lombok 
was finally broken by an expedition which cost General 
Michiels his life ; the rajahs submitted and are now 
apparently loyal. But the princes of Bali were only 
defeated, and in 1908 another expedition had to be 
despatched to the latter island ; and the wives of the 
rajahs, drunk with hemp or opium, have followed their 
lords into the field, and have flung themselves upon the 
bayonets of the Dutch soldiers rather than surrender to 
the victor. One cannot be certain that such scenes will 
never be repeated; for this stubborn race, despite the 
circle which is closing around it, appears to prefer death 
in freedom than life in subjection. 

From the administrative point of view the Residency 
of Bali and Lombok forms three districts : the first has 
for capital the town of Singaradja (8,727 inhabitants, 
including 44 Europeans and 914 Chinese). This is the 
seat of the Dutch Resident ; a huge overgrown village, 
with many native kampongs and fine public buildings. 
About two miles from Singaradja is Buleleng or Pabean 
Buleleng, a busy port with a population of Chinese, 
Arabs, Bugis, Madurese, and a few Armenians. Negara, 
the capital of the second district, has a population of 
6,650 only. Mataram, the capital of Lombok, formerly 
a very flourishing town, with Malay, Balinese, Bugis, 
Chinese, and Sasak kampongs, has to-day only three 
hundred inhabitants left. The inhabitants have left the 
towns, and are living on the territory of the rajahs, 
although the Dutch administration is everywhere doing 
its utmost to improve their lot. 

The economic future of Bali and Lombok is necessarily 
bound up with that of Java. The best that can happen 
to either island is that it should one day be absorbed 
into the economic system of the larger island. The 
Balinese, who are poor sailors on account of the nature 
of their coasts, but excellent labourers, carvers, smiths, 
armourers, &c, have, like the people of Lombok, every- 



BALI AND LOMBOK 367 

thing to hope from the methodical cultivation of their 
unusually fertile soil ; when, instead of confining them- 
selves to shipping copra and a few of their excellent 
horses, they would soon be able to export coffee, sugar, 
and tobacco of their own growing, and so open up a 
considerable trade with the outer world. 



CONCLUSION 

What will finally be the fate of Dutch colonisation 
in the islands of the East Indies ? It seems that the 
past will answer for the future. The Dutch Indies, like 
all Asiatic colonies to-day, are tending towards autonomy ; 
but they are, for the moment, incapable of realising it 
unaided ; nor could they do so with the help of any other 
nation of the Far East. They can attain independence 
only in the remote future, under the protection of the 
Dutch flag. 

But even though the moral and intellectual qualities of 
the people of the Indian Archipelago, and of the Javanese 
and Malays in particular, may justify their hope of a 
freer future, it is very difficult to imagine that a common 
destiny could be shared by races so different, and ranking 
so unequally on the scale of civilisation, without either 
cohesion or unity. With all these peoples the political 
sense is very rudimentary. The Malays and Javanese 
were able to rise from the anarchical conception of semi- 
barbarous tribes always at war to that of a host of 
autocracies, brutal and conquering powers ; but not 
to the idea of a nationality, or even of a federation 
of states united by ethnological or linguistic affinities. 
This mental disability, which delivered them up to the 
Europeans, renders them still incapable of gaining 
freedom except at the cost of falling back into anarchy. 

Thus the European theory that u the natives should be 
left to arrange matters between themselves " is simply 
puerile. The only way in which people " arrange" 
matters in any part of the world — but especially in the Far 
East — is, as history shows, by crushing the weak. The 



CONCLUSION 369 

natives of Indo-China " arranged matters " by subjecting 
the Shans and the Cambodians to the brutal tyranny of 
the Annamites : the people of the Indian Archipelago 
"arranged matters" by means of Malay and Achinese 
invasions, chronic piracy, head-hunting, ritual murders, 
incessant warfare and depopulation and mental de- 
generation on every side. To pretend that a European 
domination, even with its regrettable blunders and 
failures of justice, is not for the good of such peoples, 
is to deny the past, to deny the petition of the victims in 
favour of the complaint of the privileged despoiled of 
their privileges. 

Could any great Asiatic nation do more for the Indies 
than Holland has done ? The idea is inadmissible. 

Since the Russo-Japanese War certain Gallic enthusiasts 
have been extolling in the Japanese the very qualities 
that they most deplore in European peoples : a warlike 
spirit, an ardent nationalism, a heroic and indefatigable 
ambition : and have suggested that Japan will rapidly 
become possessed of Indo - China, the Philippines, 
the East Indies, and even China. Even did the 
childlike candour of the French induce our Japanese 
allies, by such indirect invitations, to install themselves 
in French Indo-China, it is possible that China, America, 
and Germany would scarcely encourage their ambitions, 
and at need might quiet them. It would be as Utopian — 
forgetting the lessons of history — to give all the " yellow " 
races of Asia and the "brown " races of the Archipelago to 
Japan in the name of vague racial affinities as it would be 
to suggest that Spain should be given to the Hungarians, 
because both Spaniards and Hungarians are Europeans. 

What the Asiatics admire in Japan is that she has been 
able to assume the civilisation of the West. But it is 
permissible to believe that Europeans still retain the 
complete comprehension of their own civilisation, and are 
likely to initiate other nations with greater humanity. The 
brutal denationalisation of Corea proves as much ; and 
it is certain that no Asiatic people is anxious to furnish a 
second example, 

25 



370 JAVA 

The European balance of power makes it eminently 
desirable that the East Indies should remain the property 
of Holland rather than of England, Germany, the United 
States, or France. 

Again, what do they not mean to the Dutch ? The 
Dutch have for three centuries lived in the Indies, 
developed with the Indies ; to-day they know them 
through and through, and love them as their most 
precious jewel, the very source of their wealth and 
greatness. 

It is true that in the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
turies, and even in the first half of the nineteenth century, 
the Dutch administration was far from irreproachable ; 
in which it resembles the administration of all other 
colonial powers. 

We must recognise, too, that Holland confined herself 
to diverting to her own profit the system of abuses by 
which the local tyrants had lived before her arrival. In 
doing so she did what no moral and civilised nation 
should do ; but others have done worse. But as com- 
pensation for these undeniable errors, the Indies owe 
her not less undeniable benefits, even though the origin 
of those benefits was not always disinterested. The 
admirable economic development of the whole of Java, 
and of a great part of the whole Archipelago; the security 
of a strong and systematic organisation ; a general 
humanisation of manners ; the more and more effectual 
prevention of famines ; the population of Java increased 
to ten times its original dimensions, and an increase of 
population throughout the islands : these are solid benefits. 

We cannot accuse a country of unmixed cupidity, of 
a purely selfish exploitation, when the Government of 
that country spends more than .£1,000,000 annually on 
the pensions of notables and the salaries of native 
officials, and more than .£280,000 annually on the 
education of those very natives — far more for the benefit 
of agriculture than for the upkeep of repressive military 
force. How many colonial powers can boast of having 
done more, or even of having done as much ? 



CONCLUSION 373 

We see little Holland holding in subjection peoples 
who are beginning to be aware of their numerical 
strength. To gain their hearts, she has only to suppress 
the absurd disdain which certain colonists feel for the 
native ; those imbecile insults and annoyances to which 
they would not dare to subject the meanest of their 
compatriots, and which the " browns " do not like any 
better than the " whites " because they have for centuries 
been compelled by force to endure them. 

The native aristocracy, whose power over the people 
is already so great, are in all loyalty aspiring towards the 
knowledge and culture of the West. It would be ex- 
ceedingly dangerous to wound them by a sullen hostility 
the moment they commence to produce individuals 
capable of equalling Europeans and capable of assimila- 
tion with them. Those who, in the Indies and elsewhere, 
can see in the brilliant disciple of to-day nothing but the 
possible rival of to-morrow, and in their dangerous 
jealousy repulse him and refuse their loyal collaboration, 
are most surely preparing the way for the eventual 
emancipation which they dread. If the Indies have need 
of Holland, Holland has an even greater need of her 
colonies, the source of her commercial stability and her 
political power. 

Her character and a series of happy accidents have 
allowed her to play a part disproportionate to her size. 
The place which she won in Europe in the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries her colonies restored to her in 
the nineteenth century. In the possession of her splendid 
Indian empire she feels on a level with more powerful 
States ; without them she would understand the bitter- 
ness of that saying of Leopold II. of Belgium : " It is 
such an infirmity for a country to be small!" This 
is why the Low Countries, whose courage and patriotism 
have long been famous, would shed the blood of their 
last soldier rather than abandon the Indies ; and for this 
reason they feel each day more strongly the necessity 
of securing them by a civilisation of a wholly humane 
and civilising type. 



INDEX 



Abrew, Antonio de, 12 

Acheen, 288, 289, 295 

Achinese, the, 266, 274-7 

Achinese War, 153, 288 

Adat, 108-9, 141, 208 

Adjih Saka, 8 

Administration, of Java, 189-203 ; 
see Resident, Regent 

Administrative Divisions, 57-100 

Advisers for Native Affairs, 197-8 

Agriculture, 112, 113 ; coffee, 183 ; 
history of, 205 ; rice, 213-16 ; 
coffee, 219-24 ; sugar, 224-8 ; 
tobacco, 228-31 ; tea, 231-3 ; 
quinine, 233-5 J indigo, 236-7 ; 
pepper, 238 ; opium, 238 ; agri- 
culture in Sumatra, 303. See 
Exploitation, Land Tenure, Plan- 
tations, and chapters dealing with 
the lesser islands 

Agricultural College, the, 212 

Aji Saka, 9 

Albuquerque, first Portuguese 
Viceroy, 12 

Alexander VI., 12 

Alfours, the, 34, 327, 329, 342 

Almeida, 12 

Aloun-aloun, 108 

Alor Islands, 357 

Amboin, 12, 349-50 

Amburawa, sinister history of, 
68-9, 209 

Amok, condition of, 36-7 

Amurang, 366 

Anamba Islands, 281 

Angkor Wat, 72 

Animism, 9-10 

Anjer, destroyed by tidal wave, 
261 

Arabs, civilising influence of, 28, 
154 ; complaints against, 155-56 

Archaeological Society of Djok- 
jakarta, 73 



Army, Dutch Colonial, 167-9 
Asoka, 4 

Bali, 359-67 ; Hinduism 

362-3 ; history, 365 
Bamboo, 217 
Bandjermasin, 320-1 
Bandung, 64 
Banjawangi, 98 
Banjumas, 69 
Banka, 281-2 ; tin mines of, 300-1, 

345 
Banks, 246-7 
Bataks, 34, 270-2 
Batavia, 58-61 
Batik industry, 12 1-3 
Bencoolen, 287, 289, 291 
Besuki, 87, 97 

Billiton, 281-2 ; tin mines, 301 
Birds, 116 
Blitar, 92 
Borneo, area of, 26, 307 ; history, 

308-9 ; geology, 309 ; rivers, 310 ; 

climate, flora, fauna, 311-12 ; 

history, 317-18; mines, 321 
Boro-Budur, 71-3 
Brahminism, 8, 138 
Brantas, Kali (River), 91 
Bridges, 249 

Brooke, Rajah Sir James, 31 
Brunei, 31 
Buddhism, 8, 138 
Budget, the, 208 
Bugis, the, 328-9 
Buitenzorg, Botanical Institute and 

Government station, 62, 251 

Cabots, the, explorers, 14 
Cabral, 12 
Calicut, 12 

Catholicism in Java, 138 
Chancellor, founds the Russian 
Company, 14 



372 



INDEX 



373 



Cheribon (Tjirebon), 63 

Chinese, the, 158 ; commercial 
habits, 159, 161-2 ; harshness of, 
163 ; as colonists, 164 ; laws 
relating to, 165-6 

Chinese blood, admixture of, in 
Malay race, 134, 154 

Christianity in Java, 140 

Climate of Java, 52-3 

Coco-palm and products, 216 

Coffee, 183, 219-24, 303 

College, Royal Preparatory, 200 

Colonists, the Dutch, 168-88; 
houses of, 175-6 ; furniture, 
177-8 ; food and clothing, 178- 
81 J servants, 182 ; hospitality 
of, 183 ; social impermanence 
of, 185 ; preservation of the race, 
186 

Columbus, 11 

Company of Distant Countries, 
29 

Company, Dutch East India, q.v. 

Compulsory crops, 207-10 

Condiments, 118 

Coral reefs, meaning of, 2 

Corvlt, the, 207, 209-10 

Costume, native, 123-5 

Council of the Indies, 196, 200 

Crops: rice, 213-16 ; maize, coco- 
palm, 276; fibre, 217; areca, 
217; bamboo, 217 ; coffee, 219- 
24 ; sugar, 224-8 ; tobacco, 
228-31 ; tea, 231-3 ; quinine, 
233-5 ; in Sumatra, 303 

Crossing of races, 186-8 

Daendals, Marshal, 17-18 ; his 

exploitation policy, 145 ; 

government of, 171, 191 ; road 

built by, 206 ; 248, 284 
Delft, Municipal Institute of, 

201 
Dekker, Edouard Douwes, 16 
Deli, 286-7 
Demak, history of, 67 
Departments, Government, 196 
Diamonds, 322 

Dipo Negoro, rebel leader, 21 
Djambi, 286, 293 
Dj ember, 97 
Djokjokarta, 82-3 
Domestic animals, 119-20 
Drake, Sir Francis, 14 



Dutch, arrival of, in the Indies, 29; 
seize Portuguese colonies, 30 ; 
policy of, 138 ; resume posses- 
sion "of Java, 192 

Dutch East India Company, 138 ; 
bankruptcy of, 169 ; policy of, 
169-171 ; replaced by Crown, 
190, 285 

Dutch, language, reserved for 
rulers, 42-4 

Dyaks, 34, 312-17,321 

East Indies, origin of, 2 
Education, native, 21, 144-53 ; 
demand for, 150-1 ; budget of, 

153 
Engineering works, 248-9 
Engineers, practical, 186 
Europeans in Java, 167-88 ; in 

the army, 167 ; other than 

Dutch, 172 
Exploitation of the soil, early 

methods, 204-7 ; forced cultures, 

207 
Exports, 253 

Fauna of Java, 35-6, 115-20 
Fisheries and fish, 1 16-18 
Flores Islands, 347 
Foreigners, census of, 154, 167 ; 

regulations to be observed by, 

172-3 
Foreigners, Oriental, 155-66 

Games, 127 

Gamelan, native orchestra, 127-8 

Garut, 64-5 

Gayos, the, 273-4 

Generalities, 25-44 

Geological structure of Archi- 
pelago, 32 

Giri, 90-1 

Gold, 297-300, 322 

Gorontalo, 336 

Governor-General, the, 195 ; 
powers of, 194; salary, 199 

Grisei, 90-1 

Gunung Guntur, 49 

Hemp (Cannabis indica), abuse of, 

36-7 
Hindus, invasion of, 4, 5, 8, 34 ; 

civilising influence of, 28, 137 
Hinduism in Bali, 362-3 



374 



INDEX 



Historical sketch, 1-24 

Holland, area and population, 25 ; 

Asiatic possessions, 25-6 
Houtman, Cornelius, discovers 

route to India, 15, 28 
Huns, the, 4 
Hunting, 113 

Imports, 253 

Indonesians, 33 

Industries, native, 112 ; copra, 216 ; 
bamboo huts, 217 ; sugar, 224- 
8; tobacco, 228-31; batik- and 
krees-m&king, 244 ; silk, 245 

Islam, 28 ; introduction of, 137, 
141 

Japanese, the, 134 ; position in the 
Far East, 155, 166, 369 

Java, history, 1-24 ; area, 26 ; 
population, 27 ; geography, 45- 
53 ; see Crops, Fisheries, Fauna 

Javanese, the, in early times, 4, 34, 
101-35 J their villages and agri- 
cultural pursuits, 105 ; houses, 
106; customs, 108; family, 109; 
marriage, 11 0-1 1 ; crops, 112; 
industries, 112 ; as workers, 113 ; 
their fisheries, 1 13-18; indus- 
tries, 120-5 > dress, 123-5 '> village 
life, 125-6 ; amusements, 127 ; 
character and manners, 13 1-4; 
culture, 135 ; mental abilities, 
136-153 ; thirst for ideas, 147-51 

Javanese language, the, 38-40, 137 

Kalangs, customs of the, 102 

Kawi, ancient Javanese, 137 

Kediri, 87, 91 

Kedu, 70-1 

Koningsplein, Batavia, 61 

Korintji, 268 

Krakatau, eruption of, 261 

Krawang, 63 

Kudus, 68 

Kupang, 358 

Labour, compulsory, 207-10 ; free, 

210 
Lampong, Residency of, 289, 292 
Lampongs, the, 37-42, 267, 284 
Land, old forms of tenure, re- 
formed by Raffles, 19, 208, 212, 
247-8 



Lebongs, the, 267 

Lerne, de, 13 

Leyden, Dr., 18 

Leyden, University of, 200-1 

Lombok, 359-67 

Lura (loerah), headman, 195 

Macassar, 331 

Macassars, the, 326, 330 

Madiun, Residency of, 86, 98, 101 

Madjapahit, empire of, 9, 49 

Madura, Residency of, 45, 72 

Madurese, the, 103-4 

Magelang, 47 

Mahomedan festivals, 141-2. See 
Islam 

Malang, 94 

Malaria, of Tjilatjap, 46 

Malay Archipelago, formation of, 
1-2 ; population 26 

Malay language, 38-42 ; low Malay, 
40 

Malays, probable origin of, 2-7 ; 
extraneous influences, 4 ; early 
legends, 4-33 ; elements of ad- 
mixture, 34 ; appearance and 
qualities, 35-6, 10 1-3 ; of Su- 
matra, 266 ; of Menangkabau, 
268-9, 270 

Mantri, the, 195 

Marching-cry of nomads, 5 

Mataram, ancient empire of, 74* 

Mecca, 157 

Meester Cornells, 59 

Menado, 334-5 

Menangkabau, Malays of, 34, 268-9 

Merapi, 69, 71 

Merauke, 356 

Merbabu, 69, 71 

Mines and minerals, 242-3 ; in 
Sumatra, 297 ; in Banka, 300-1 ; 
in Borneo, 321 

Minto, Lord, 18 

Miscegenation, advantages and 
drawbacks of, 186-8 

Modjokerto, 90 

Moluccas, the, 339, 345-9 

Money, 252 

Mongols, the, 4 

Multatuli (E. Douwes Dekker), 16 

Nassau, House of, 31 
Native languages, 37-42 
" Native Question/' the, 203 



INDEX 



375 



Native races, 33-7, and under 
headings of various islands 

Negritos, 33 

New Guinea, Residency of, 351 

Niassais, the, 277-8 

Nomadic origin of Malays, legen- 
dary and probable, 6 

Officials, Colonial, 189-203 ; 

examinations, 201 ; appointment, 

202 
Opium, abuse of, 36-7 
Orang Benua, 280 
Orang-Ulu, 268 
Orang Luba, 268 
Orientals, see Foreigners 
Outer Possessions, 27, 257 

Pacific Continent, the sub- 
merged, 2 

Pacific Islands, 2 

Padang, 287, 289, 290 

Padris, the, 287 

Pajajaram, empire of, 9 

Palembang, 285, 289, 292 ; petro- 
leum in, 302 

Pamekasan, 98 

Pandofo, the, 106 

Pangeran Adipati Mangku Negoro, 

75> 79> 81 
Pangeran Adipati Paku Alam, 75, 

79,8i 
Papua, see New Guinea 
Papuans, 33 

Pasangrahan, Government inn, 73 
Pasuruan, 87, 92 
Pekalongan, 65-6 
Perkeniers, of Banka, the, 345 
Petroleum, 243, 302 
Philip II., annexes Portugal, 14, 

29 
Philologists, official, 197-8 
Plantations and plantation life, 

173 ; land tenure, 174 ; houses, 

J 75-& ; see Colonists 
Polynesia, 2 
Polos, the, 2 
Pontianak, 318-19 
Portugal, discovery of Indies by, 

28 
Portuguese, discoveries and arrival 

of, 11-13 
Posts and telegraphs, 251 
Prambanan, 83 



Preangers, Residency of the, 64 
Principalities, the, see Vorsten- 

landen 
Pringitan, the, 106 
Probolinggo, 93 
Products, natural and other, 204- 

39 
Property, native system of, 212 
Protection, 253 
Purworedjo, 71 
Puwokarta, 63 

Quinine, 233-5 

Races, Native, 33-7 

Raffles, Sir Stamford, 3, 17 ; Im- 
perial and local policy of, 18 ; 
reforms, 19, 190 ; policy of, 
191, 291 

Railways, 249-50, 305-6 

Raksha, Hindu demons, 4, 97 

Rasaksa, Hindu demons, also name 
given to pre- Brahmin inhabi- 
tants of Java, 4, 6 

Redjangs, the, 208 

Regents, native, 193 

Rembang, 85 

Residencies of Java, 57-100 ; of 
Sumatra, 289 

Residents, the, 194, 197 

Revenue, 19 

Rice, 213-16 

Riouw Lingga, Archipelago of, 
278-80, 296 

Rivers of Java, 50-1 

Roads, 249 

Rubber, 300 

Rulers, Native, 190 ; pensions and 
salaries of, 193 ; titles, 193 

Russo-Japanese War, effect of, 
7> 154-5, 364 

Sa Francisco de, 13 
Salatiga, 68 
Salejer, 333 
Salt, 244 

Samarang, port of, 66 ; suburbs, 6j 
Sampang, 99 
Sandal-wood Island, 358 
Sarong, the, 123 
Sasaks, the, 364 
Schools, 149-153 

Selo mangling (native Hindu 
shrines), 91 



376 



INDEX 



Serdang, 294-5 

Shipping, 251-6 

Shiva, worship of, 96 

Sindow, 71 

Sirih (betel), 107 

Sitabondo, 97-8 

Slamettan, or banquet, 131, 141 

Slavery, suppressed, 171 

Snakes, 46 

Solo River, 86-7 

Solor Islands, 357 

State philologists, 197 

Sugar, 224-8 

Sukabumi, 64-5 

Sultan, the, 75-6, 82-3 

Sumatra, 257 ; climate, 259 ; vol- 
canoes, 259-262 ; rivers, 262 ; 
climate, 265 ; flora and fauna, 
265-6 ; inhabitants, 265-278 ; 
languages, 282 ; history, 285-8 ; 
Residencies of, 289 ; minerals, 
297 ; crops, 303-4 ; railways, 305 

Sumatra, East Coast, 292, 294 

Sumatra, West Coast, 306 

Sumba, 358 

Sumbawa, 358 

Sumbing, 71 

Sundanese, the, 34-5, 101-3 

Surabaja, 87-90 

Surakarta, 78, 82 

Susuhunan, the, 74-7, 80-1 

Tandjong Priok, port of Batavia, 

59-6° 
Tandjong Priok, capital of Riouw 

Lingga archipelago, 296 
Tapanuli, 289, 291 
Tea, 231-3 
Teak, 240-2 



Tenggris, the, 96 
Ternate, 347 
Tigers, 56 
Timber, 240-2, 300 
Timor, 31, 353 ; Holland's en- 
deavour to purchase, 388-9 
Tjandi Loro, 64 
Tjandi Mendut, 83 
Tjandi Sewu, 84 
Tjilatjap, 69 ; malaria of, 70 
Tobacco, 228-31 
Tondano, 335 
Toradjas, the, 329 
Tosari, sanatorium, 95 
Trade, 253-4 
Trading companies, 15 
Tumpang, 97 

Van den Bosch, system of cul- 
tivation, 207-8 

Van den Lith, 209 

Van Hoevell, 209 

Van Putte, 209 

Vegetation, Javanese, 53-4 

Venetians, 28 

Veth, 219 

Volcanoes, 32, 48-50 

Vorstenlanden, 57 ; railway, 66 ; 
history, 74-6 ; produce, 77-85 

War with England, 170; with 

France, 171 
Waingapu, 359 
Wayang, 127-130 
Wedono, 195 
Weltevreden, 59-60 
Willoughby, attempts North - 

Eastern passage, 14 
Wong Madjapahity 361 



UNWIH BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRKSHAM PRKSS, WOKING AND LONDON 






, 




T.Vi«l,.M- I'mvi... I. \il.l,»t">i|-.r. •...-.•. 1. n.W.i". 



(J .VV. Kacou & l',i J.td.r.'T SUand . l.oml 



Q7A 



TXT 










vO< 






<^ 






-- 

> O > S S 

A ^ 



CV* S 




x\ vV 



\ x 









'0 V 







.<W 



, ^ 



^ * 



.* v 






>0 



v 



^ 












v 












a\ 









v0 



tf> * 


















A V 



^ * 





















,\\ 



V </> 


















I 






v -v. 

v. 



\° ^r S 






■ 

O 









<^ 



V 






^ X 












a\ 






•V 



